Autumn programme 2024

Galeria Municipal do Porto announces its autumn programme: solo exhibitions by Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, Vivian Caccuri and Rita Caldo; a study programme by Pauline Curnier Jardin; and a three-day citywide festival Circuitos’24. 

Jonathan Uliel Saldanha: Surface Disorder
October 26, 2024–February 16, 2025
Curated by João Laia 

Surface Disorder is the first large-scale solo exhibition by Jonathan Uliel Saldanha (b. 1979, Porto), whose practice unfolds at the intersection of sound, installation, performance and moving image. Presented in the GMP’s ground floor, Surface Disorder shapeshifts the space into an immersive AI-controlled environment defined by light, sound and sculptural elements. The operatic setting addresses contemporary tensions arising from the relationship between humans and machines, the ongoing ecological collapse and the ubiquity of capital materialising as apocalyptic energy flows. 

Vivian Caccuri: Electric Jungle Fever
October 26, 2024–February 23, 2025
Curated by Bernardo de Souza 

Moving between tropical forests and urban jungles, Vivian Caccuri’s (b. 1986, São Paulo) work builds ethereal and tangible sonic landscapes, fostering a transtemporal detour projecting overlapping historical timeframes. The series of existing and newly produced work highlight the aesthetic and political research Caccuri developed for over a decade: sound as a central element of life, whether as a form of communication between species, or as a language, like music, an artistic manifestation that mobilises humanity through ritual and hedonistic expressions.

Electric Jungle Fever is the Brazilian artist’s first solo exhibition in Portugal.

Rita Caldo: As in Heaven, So On Earth
October 26, 2024–March 2, 2025
Curated by Patrícia Coelho 

Drawing on the work of psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud and Donald Winnicott, Rita Caldo (b. 1998, Porto) explores how the alliance of storytelling, space design and playful figuration may be employed to create imaginary places. Caldo’s handmade sculptural compositions inhabit maze-like microcosm to generate a metamorphic dreamlike space.   

As in Heaven, so on Earth is the inaugural project of GMP’s new exhibition room dedicated to artists working in Porto.

Pauline Curnier Jardin: Freestanding Joys
October 28–30, 2024

This year’s second edition of the Colectivos Plaka study programme, led by Pauline Curnier Jardin, explores the heterotopias of entertainment and spectacle. Jardin’s Freestanding Joys are immersive spaces where the artist displays her films, transforming stories into matter and matter into place. The workshop looks at the relationship between spectacle and collective passions and how the illusionary devices of entertainment might be transformed into critical tools for addressing contemporary challenges. 

CIRCUITOS ’24—Arte Contemporânea Porto 
A weekend dedicated to Porto’s contemporary art scene 
November 15–17, 2024

The first edition of this annual festival embraces the wide range of art agencies operating in Porto: from artist-run spaces to private foundations and public institutions, as well as commercial galleries and experimental structures dedicated to sound and music.  Comprising over 40 spaces and organizations throughout the city, the different initiatives map the exceptionally eclectic fabric of the city’s contemporary art scene.  

HHY & The Macumbas + Luna Ring: Bad Blood  
Audio-visual performance 
December 7, 2024

On the threshold where music meets the machine, a unique collaboration unfolds between HHY & The Macumbas and the generative art collective anchored in artificial intelligence, Luna Ring. An audio-visual tapestry is generated in real time, crossing the organic and the synthetic, combining an investigation on the limits of rhythm with an exploration of the interstices of mechanised perception.

Crossover programme with Fonoteca Municipal do Porto 
GMP’s programming regularly crosses over with the Fonoteca Municipal do Porto (FMP), a sound archive and public space for music appreciation that houses the city’s record collection of over 40,000 items.  

On October 5, Vivian Caccuri proposes a collective listening session followed by a conversation around a record from the FMP’s vast collection. On December 7, Rodrigo Vaiapraia will present his forthcoming album in an intimate showcase. 

FMP also hosts Rush Hour, an informal gathering to listen to a selection of records, every Wednesday at 6pm.