Culture

The new season at Casa da Música kicks off on 15th January, with Luca Francesconi taking the role of resident composer. Cellist Marc Coppey, from France, is the resident artist. The programming will feature an opera by Verdi and Puccini, conducted by maestro Martin André and performed by the Porto Symphonic Orchestra.

The seven artists that will present their artwork under the programme of Porto Urban Art have been selected: Diogo Pintampum, Low Class Club, Matilde Cunha, Leonor Violeta, Mariana Bento (Malva), Tiago de Carvalho (Oaktree), and Henrikas Riškas will display their artistic interventions in the city’s public space. This is in accordance with the Open Call, launched last 12th December. The initiative is implemented by the municipal company Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto.

The Serralves Museum hosts the exhibit by Louise Bourgeois (Paris-1911 to New York – 2010), until 20th June. The display spans her work, featuring seven decades of Bourgeois’ oeuvre between the end of the 1940’s and 2010. Her artwork has been displayed in several museums all around the world, with exhibits that deal with sensitive topics from her childhood, such as family, sexuality, the body, the mind, death and the unconscious, which she has healed and exorcized through her art practice.

The MIP’s 3rd edition, which is coproduced by Porto City Hall, was scheduled to take place in April, but owing to the ongoing pandemic, it inaugurated in the end of October and it extends until the end of the year. The organisations involved in this 3rd edition are: Espacio Jhannia Castro, Espiga, Galeria Adorna, MIRA FORUM, OPPIA, Salut au Monde! and The Cave Photography.

This year the Forum of the Future (Fórum do Futuro) was not held, owing to the ongoing pandemic. The announcement was made last July; however, the organisation also announced that there would be a book edition to mark the seventh edition of the Forum of the Future. The publication “Fórum do Futuro: Vita Nova” is available as of 28 December. It is free and it is made available at Rivoli.

Take time to visit the exhibition themed “Que horas são que horas”, curated by José Maia, Paula Parente Pinto and Paulo Mendes. It opened on 17th December, and it pictures the role that a Municipal Gallery must play in the city. Mayor Rui Moreira already visited the exhibition, which inaugurated precisely two weeks after “Nets of Hyphae”. Both exhibits are on show at Porto Municipal Gallery until 14th February 2021.

The exhibition catalogue of the “Cultures and Geographies. Centenary of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto” display, organised by the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto was acknowledged “Best of the year”, by the Portuguese Association of Museology. This weekend, take time to see the exhibition at the MHNC-UP, at the Jardim da Cordoaria, from 10am till 1pm.

The next two Saturdays, the Porta Jazz Association brings the two last outdoors concerts of 2020. The stage is the "Quintal Porta-Jazz", something like "Porta-Jazz backyard"; on 19th December, the WIZ trio, with the Portuguese José Pedro Coelho, on the saxophone, the French Wilfred Wilde on the electric guitar and the Spanish Iago Fernandez, on the drums, take to the stage at 11am.

The 8th edition of the “O Dia Mais Curto" [aka, “The shortest Day”, free translation] features the Curtas Festival at the Biodiversity Gallery, at the Planetarium of Porto and at the Casa Comum of the Rectory of the University of Porto, on 21st December. Goodbye autumn. Hello winter.

Coliseu Porto Ageas welcomes a bundle of talents, most of them Portuguese speaking artists that will be in the circus arena for your delight. The run of shows starts on 11th December 2020 and goes until 3rd January 2021. There are amazing acts as gymnastics trapeze, balancing acts or breath-taking acrobatics, mind blowing juggling and a live orchestra.