On the Edges of Fiction

“On the edges of fiction” is the new artistic programme of José de Guimarães International Centre for the Arts (CIAJG), in Guimarães.

Until February 12, 2022, the José de Guimarães International Centre for the Arts (Guimarães, Portugal) presents a series of new exhibitions and dialogues with the collection that mark the beginning of the artistic programme “On the edges of fiction.”

Exhibitions
Chief curator: Marta Mestre

“Pasado”: 
Rodrigo Hernández

Armoured Room
Fernão Cruz 

Cosmic Tones
Francisca Carvalho 

School of Leisure
Priscila Fernandes

Colossus Complex
Pedro G. Romero, Alisa Heil & André Sousa, Carla Filipe, N.E.G. (Nova Escultura Galega), Jorge Barbi, Lola Lasurt, Taxio Ardanaz, Jeremy Deller, Gareth Kennedy, Jorge Satorre, Andreia Santana, Salgado Almeida, José de Guimarães, Carme Nogueira, Diego Vites, Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum, Pizz Buin
Guest curator: Ángel Calvo Ulloa

Myths… Non… Inside Out
Anna Franceschini, Horácio Frutuoso, José de Guimarães, Manoel de Oliveira, Kiluanji Kia Henda

Masks room invites…
Sarah Maldoror

Mysteries of fire: the “maternities” in the José de Guimarães collection
Carla Cruz, Maria Amélia Coutinho, Yasmin Thayná, José de Guimarães, A Música Portuguesa a Gostar dela Própria, Tunga

Half-eye, long face
Pedro Henriques

Atmospheric Diary
Virgínia Mota

Amazing Fantasy
Ana Vaz

CIAJG Collection
José de Guimarães, African, Pre-Columbian and Chinese Art

The José de Guimarães International Centre for the Arts (CIAJG) is a structure focused on contemporary art and the relationships it establishes with arts from other eras and different cultures and subjects, through its main collections: works by the Portuguese artist José de Guimarães (b. 1939), African art, pre-Columbian ceramics, Chinese art.

Curated by Marta Mestre, the artistic programme “On the edges of fiction” proposes lines of reflection that guide exhibitions and public programmes over the next three years (2020–2023).

The new artistic programme focuses on the fictional production of art, with reference to forgotten stories and storytelling techniques. It also addresses the polyphony and interplay of voices that interact with the museum often in a contradictory manner. Create space for fiction through our imagination, that moves towards reality and at the same time regenerates it, is the motto of the CIAJG’s activity. The programme revives forgotten or disused forms of knowledge, digital speculations, oral traditions, mythological constructions, fables and stories. Disqualified by the modern-capitalist project, this “simple” stories are rekindled today, in the dispute to establish a new order of knowledge. Of minor importance and ambiguous, epic or intimate, they provide us with a more intense relationship with reality. Or enchant us into a profound slumber.

This proposal also aims to enable art and history to move beyond concrete facts and simple information—towards a feeling of transfiguration, poetry and joy. If everything is discussed in the museum, how can history, objects, images, gestures and words “go crazy”?

“Intensively using fiction in rearranging relations between ourselves and others and experimenting with new ways to live together is a path for rewriting the museum’s grammar, questioning its processes of selection and exclusion. The museum is the machine, the gear, in this fictional and storytelling process. It is a traditional space for the purification of discourses, and also for fractures between objects, subjectivities and ideas. It is a space that forges an outdated idea of pacification and consensus, which is why it is important to rethink its role,” says Marta Mestre.

The José de Guimarães International Centre for the Arts (CIAJG) is under the management of A Oficina, the entity responsible for the management and programming of other cultural spaces in the municipality of Guimarães: Vila Flor Cultural Centre (CCVF), Casa da Memória (CDMG), Candoso Creation Centre (CCC) and Loja Oficina (LO).

Press office: A Oficina
Bruno Borges Barreto
brunobarreto [​at​] aoficina.pt / (+351) 253424715 / 915191218