What we are looking forward to in 2019 in Serralves

Serralves is planning a number of activities all year round to jointly celebrate its 30th anniversary and the Foundation's 20th birthday.

With a celebratory focus on these two important dates, the Fundação de Serralves, in Porto, presented the special programming for the year 2019 on 25 January and the highlight was the opening of the Casa de Cinema Manoel de Oliveira, the long-awaited project within the Foundation.

"The building will have a cinema lounge, several exhibition halls and educational service rooms", as referred by Ana Pinho, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

The Casa de Cinema Manoel de Oliveira will open in the first half of 2019 at a date yet to be fixed, as the renovation and reshuffle works of the former garage of Count of Vizela, designed by Álvaro Siza are still to be concluded.

"The main aim is to intersect cinema and other arts", as explained by Ana Pinho, who stated that the building will host the enormous acquis by Manoel de Oliveira. It will comprise two exhibition rooms, for the permanent exhibit Monel de Oliveira and temporary displays, respectively.

The starting point to the Casa da Música opening is the film "Visita ou Memórias e Confissões", shot in 1982, with the purpose of being posthumously screened, which happened one month after the film director died, in April 2015.

Another highlight regarding the casa da Música is the exhibition devoted to Eugène Green, American filmmaker, residing in France and with a strong connection to Oliveira's work.

Exhibition wise, Serralves features manifold news and events.

In 2019, there will be 'Serralves em Festa', 'Há Luz no Parque' and 'Jazz no Parque', events that will bring together children and adults alike in the gardens of the Serralves Foundation. The kick off of the activities' programme is the inauguration of the artistic retrospective by British artist Tacita Dean, who has already showcased her work in Serralves back in 2012. Tacita works primarily in analogue film but she is also known for her chalk paint.

Also, the Foundation will showcase the works of Siza Vieira, Paula Rego and Cabrita Reis.

The exhibit 'I'm Your Mirror', by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, organised by the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao is also included in the agenda for this coming February.

"This is not a specifically comeback artist celebration, but the agenda is full of artists and performers who have a connection to Serralves", as pinpointed by Ana Pinho.

The Cycle of Great Exhibitions in the Park, which started in 2018 with Anish Kapoor, continues with Icelander-Dane artist Olafur Eliasson, well known for his environmental concerns and large-scale outdoor installations and sculptures, which will be on display in Serralves in the second half of 2019.

February invites American multidisciplinary artist Julianna Huxtable and Cypriot choreographer Maria Hassabi. March hosts South-African choreographer Robyn Orlin, and June sees German sound artist Christina Kubisch in the Serralves Park.

The focus for 2019 will be the Park with new projects such as the "Tree Top Walk", a pathway built from wood that will enable visitors to walk through the park and blend in with the tree canopy. It was carefully designed to avoid any environmental hazards.

"This is a grand programming indeed", concluded Ana Pinho.