Institution(ing)s opens its headquarters

Occupying CAM’s Engawa Space, Institution(ing)s opens with Gall Ball, an exhibition-process by artist Francisco Trêpa, curated by the MA students in Culture Studies of The Lisbon Consortium, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Gall Ball operates as the prologue to Institution(ing)s and encapsulates the ideas that form the project’s mission. It departs from the observation of the galls, structures that trees produce in response to external aggressions, found in the Gulbenkian Garden. These become safe havens for the insects that cause, protected from potential predators. In addition, the galls are also reused as shelter by other insects.

Similar to the galls, Institution(ing)s is an organisation created in response to issues simultaneously internal and external to artistic institutions: social exclusion and inequality; environmental crisis; and economic tensions. It serves as a safe haven for institutions of varying sizes, capabilities, and scopes to experiment and develop new practices. In addition to offering shelter and facilities for network members, its space at CAM will also be used by the larger artistic ecosystem as a laboratory where ideas, knowledge, and practices are born.

Due to its laboratory-like nature, its scenography at CAM was conceived as an architectural system without obsolescence, proposing a flexible, sustainable, and circular museography. This was designed and built by students from the Architecture Department of the Autonomous University of Lisbon.

Like Institution(ing)s, Gall Ball will be presented under construction, a living organism in the process of change. As such, when opens in 20 September, it will not resemble a finished exhibition, but an extension of the artist's studio. The sculptures are on display, but unfinished, uncolored and unglazed. Throughout Gall Ball’s lifetime, they will be rehearsed until they find their final form and position in the space.

During Gall Ball’s rehearsal, we'll attend a workshop on organising as mycelium (Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez), share a meal (LANDRA), participate in a series of conversations (André Tecedeiro, Cindy Sissokho), and in a performance (Ely Janoville) that will take place after the rehearsal ends and gives way to the exhibition. The programme also includes a residency by the collective Apparatus22.

The Institution(ing)s project
Institution(ing)s is a cooperation Project, funded by Creative Europe, coordinated by the  Faculty of Human Sciences of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, under the artistic and scientific direction of curator and researcher Luísa Santos. The formal Consortium is additionally composed of seven institutions, including CAM - Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, the headquarters of the project. 

The remaining partners of Institution(ing)s are Tensta konsthall (SE), Errant Bodies/ The Listening Biennial (DE), tranzit.ro/ Iași (RO), Jan van Eyck Academie (NL), MOCA NGO (UA) and Museum of Impossible Forms (FI). In Portugal, other institutions collaborate as associate partners, including: Galerias Municipais de Lisboa, MNAC - Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Kunsthalle Lissabon and Hangar. We also have a partnership with Buro Stedelijk in Amsterdam. Each partner performs specific roles in the art sector and responds to shared planetary challenges from each of their situated practices and contexts across Europe, coming together with differences and commonalities, as a living organism in constant processes of exchange and transformation.

 
Institution(ing)s

Coordination: Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Headquarters: CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Coordination Committee: Luísa Santos (Universidade Católica Portuguesa; CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian); Ana Fabíola Maurício (Universidade Católica Portuguesa); Peter Hanenberg (Universidade Católica Portuguesa); Benjamin Weil (CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian); Ana Botella (CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian); Hicham Khalidi (Jan van Eyck Academie); Boudewijn Cox (Jan van Eyck Academie); Cecilia Widenheim (Tensta konsthall); Alba Lindblad (Tensta konsthall); Giovanna Esposito Yussif (Museum of Impossible Forms); Yuliia Hnat (MOCA NGO); Olga Balashova (MOCA NGO); Brandon LaBelle (Errant Bodies | Listening Biennial); Livia Pancu (tranzit.ro/ Iași); Florin Bobu (tranzit.ro/ Iași). 

Artistic and scientific direction: Luísa Santos
Project management: Ana Fabíola Maurício
Communication: Maria Eduarda Duarte
Visual identity: vivóeusébio

For more details, please see https://institutionings.eu/contributors.html. Get in touch:  info@institutionings.eu

Institution(ing)s is a medium-scale collaboration project funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

The 2025-26 programme has been supported by the Nordic Culture Fund and the Romenian Cultural Institute in Lisbon.

Scenography

Coordination and general concept: João Quintela, Marta Sequeira
Design and construction: Simão Passarinho (coord.), Beatriz Lopes (coord.), Afonso Penetra (coord.), Tomás Leitão (coord.), Antonia Martínez, Bárbara Carreiro, Beatriz Mendes, Bernado Correia, Carlota da Cunha, Catarina Doina, David Ruiz, Diogo Morgado, Elena Saccomano, Eula Tavares, Henrique Santos, José Ribeiro, Lígia Serralha, Linda Bárbara Cruz, Mafalda Lucena e Vale, Márcio Bento, Margarida Camanda, Beatriz Aragão, Otilia Sambo, Sofia Carreira, Tiago Oliveira, Clara Oliveira
Partnership: dst group
Consultancy: Telmo Cruz, Fernando Rodrigues
Photography: Diana Quintela, Sara Matos
Acknowledgments: Inês Lobo, Filipa Ramalhete