Programme highlights

In Lisbon, MAC/CCB affirms its position as a leading museum for contemporary art. Articulating systematic readings of art’s historical contexts with social, political, and economic transformations, it highlights multiple ways of engaging to contemporary experience. Its programme is structured around established lines of research and developed in close collaboration with partner institutions, reinforcing the museum’s role both nationally and internationally.

Patricia Domínguez, Ines Doujak, Lubaina Himid: Multiple Eyes
Curated by Nuria Enguita and Rafael Barber Cortell
May 14–October 25, 2026
Across different generations, the three artists deploy the sensory, the symbolic, the ancestral, and the spiritual, alongside the popular, the carnivalesque, the magical, and the abject. Challenging singular and binary narratives, and reclaiming storytelling from systems of control, they propose narration as an intimate, porous, polyphonic practice—opening a space for dialogue, empathy, and alternative ways of imagining the present. More info.

José Pedro Croft: Reflections, Enclaves, Deviations
Curated by Luiz Camillo Osorio
Until September 13, 2026
Twenty-five years later, one of Portugal’s most acclaimed artists returns to the CCB, continuing his exploration of body, scale, space, and architecture, as well as the subtle thresholds between surface and three-dimensionality. The solo exhibition unfolds along two interlinked lines: the dialogue between graphic processes, constructive traditions, and architectural elements; and a sculptural rigour that invites a perceptual experience resistant to the acceleration of our time. More info.

Frida Orupabo: Cloud of Confusion
Curated by Marta Mestre
June 4–November 1, 2026
This powerful projects revisits the vast image archive that Frida Orupabo has been assembling through her Instagram account. Drawing on colonial archives, ethnographic photography, family portraits, and popular culture, it lays bare tensions between intimacy and violence, creating a charged critical and emotional space. The title evokes both the digital cloud where images and data are stored, and the haze of information, memory, and oblivion it produces. More info.

Terra Crua
Architecture Centre
Curated by Madalena Vidigal
June 18–October 11, 2026
At a time when the planet’s limits are under increasing strain, Terra Crua approaches earthen construction not as a nostalgic return but as a radical proposition for contemporary architecture in Portugal. The show fosters dialogue among professionals, researchers, and the wider public, giving visibility to a discreet yet significant movement while contributing to a broader cultural shift towards more sustainable modes of building grounded in a viable, ethical, and poetic material. More info.

"May I Help You? Posso Ajudar?" Arts and Artists from the 1970s Onwards
Curated by Nuria Enguita, Marta Mestre and Raphael Fonseca
Permanent exhibition
Inspired by Andrea Fraser’s performance of the same name, the show explores the diversity of representations and narratives within the artistic field, questioning the notion of a linear art history. From the ruptures that redefined art in the 1970s to today's accelerated digitalisation, it brings together about 130 works by 90 artists across a range of heterogeneous formats and functions, reflecting on artistic practice and the social roles artists envision for themselves. More info.

An Atlantic Drift: The Arts of the 20th Century Based on the Berardo Collection
Curated by Nuria Enguita, Marta Mestre and Mariana Pinto dos Santos
Permanent exhibition
An Atlantic Drift charts and unravels paths through the arts of the 20th century, specifically the period from 1909 to 1977, seeking to disrupt preconceived notions and established canons by bringing together references and artistic forms that are usually kept apart. The exhibition follows an erratic chronology, marked by digressions and temporal leaps, thereby revealing connections and confrontations between the European and American shores to suggest potential relationships and drifts often overlooked or absent from art history. More info.

About MAC/CCB
As one of Portugal’s foremost museums, MAC/CCB—Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre at the Centro Cultural de Belém is dedicated to the study and presentation of modern and contemporary art, with a particular focus on interdisciplinary practices and emerging architectural approaches. A must-visit destination, it was awarded Best Permanent Collection by Atlas Lisboa and is regularly featured in The Art Newspaper’s ranking of the 150 most visited museums in the world. More info.

For press enquiries, please contact manuela.costa@ccb.pt