06.02 | 18.30h | Fr. Júlio Fragata Library, SJ, Portuguese Catholic University, Braga

The Board of Directors of the Serralves Foundation and the Rector of the Portuguese Catholic University invite you to the opening of the exhibition Mãos sobre a cidade. Artistic investigations in the urban environment - E. M. de Melo e Castro, on February 6, at 6:30 p.m., in the Father Júlio Fragata Library, SJ, Portuguese Catholic University - Braga Regional Center.

The exhibition Mãos sobre a cidade (Hands on the City) presents a group of works by Portuguese and international artists represented in the Serralves Collection that focus on contemporary urban reality, investigating the physical, economic, social and cultural processes that shape life in the city. Developed specifically for the four campuses of the Portuguese Catholic University, the exhibition includes the presentation of a group of works by the artist, poet and essayist E. M. de Melo e Castro at the Father Júlio Fragata Library, SJ, in the Braga Regional Center.

The revolution of April 25, 1974 had a decisive impact on the practice of Melo e Castro, a central figure in Portuguese Experimental Poetry, who had been advocating the free exploration of the visual, phonetic and material potential of language since the beginning of the previous decade. Melo e Castro closely examined the profusion of graphic interventions that marked the national territory during the post-revolutionary period, taking a particular interest in the appropriation of road signs as support for political messages that subverted their original meaning. The exhibition features the famous work Sinais (1976/1997), conceived during this period, as well as a collection of documents that reveal the outlines of the research carried out by the artist in this context.

Mãos sobre a cidade also includes an exhibition that brings together works by various artists at the Lisbon campus, and will also feature works by artists Gordon Matta-Clark and Pedro Barateiro, which will open on February 28 and 29 at the Viseu and Porto Regional Centers.

This exhibition, curated by Joana Valsassina, is the third initiative organized as part of the Portuguese Catholic University's membership of the Serralves Foundation's Founding Board and is part of the Serralves Collection's Itinerant Exhibitions Programme, which aims to make the Foundation's collection accessible to diverse audiences in all regions of the country.