Antoni Muntadas: Muntadas Lugar Público

An exhibition by Antoni Muntadas open to the public from April 5 to August 10 at Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo, Brazil.

Muntadas (Barcelona, 1942), an artist known for challenging socio-cultural conventions and exploring the power relations embedded in signs of urban imagery and text, presents an unprecedented exhibition at Sesc Pompeia starting April 5.

The installation exhibition Muntadas Lugar Público invites the audience to reflect on the limits and transformations of shared spaces. In a context of increasing privatization and surveillance, the artist intervenes at Sesc Pompeia’s Conviviality Area to question urban transformations and the dwindling access to collective spaces.

Sesc Pompeia, located in the western zone of the City of São Paulo, Brazil, originated from a former factory shut down between 1973 and 1977. After its architectural requalification by Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi, the space became not only a cultural, sports, and leisure center but also a convergence point reflecting the city's historical transformations. Lina preserved the memory of the old factory while introducing ‘modern’ elements that made the space accessible and welcoming to the public.

Muntadas’ exhibition aligns with this context of transformation and dialogue between past and present, evoking the architect’s original intentions. Muntadas Lugar Público highlights how urban and public spaces have increasingly been marked by divisions, surveillance, and control, to the detriment of citizens and communities.

For the artist, as the privatization of public areas such as streets, squares, and parks expands, the question of what is truly "public" becomes increasingly relevant. Thus, he raises an essential inquiry: who truly occupies public spaces? He provokes us to reconsider whether these spaces still belong to everyone and to rethink the very definition of collective and democratic space. The project opens up a sincere dialog with the public, the audience that already circulates and will circulate through the institution's environments.

Curated by Diego Matos, the project at Sesc Pompeia presents a site-specific intervention at the Conviviality Area: visual, textual interventions and architectural devices designed to explore the meanings of "public"—both as an audience and as a space—while provoking reflections on contemporary urban spaces and the notions of leisure and public sphere.

All elements of the exhibition will be newly created, as a special activation of the Conviviality Area, dedicated to civic practice and the playfulness of the public that accesses it. As part of the exhibition, there will be a section showcasing over 50 posters from the artist’s trajectory and a study area featuring a curated selection of his publications.

Beyond mere observation of urban spaces, the artist delves into the power dynamics that shape them, such as surveillance, social control, and privatization. “These issues, often invisible in everyday life, profoundly impact how people interact with the city and with each other,” the artist emphasizes.

Muntadas invites the public to look toward the future and question the dynamics redefining spaces of coexistence. He challenges the structures that limit collective freedom and proposes a broader vision of how public spaces can—and should—serve as places for gathering, dialogue, and participation. The exhibition explores the tensions between access and control while offering a critical analysis of how these forces operate in contemporary cities. It encourages reflection on the role of art and culture in constructing a more inclusive and democratic society.