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22/11/2012

Juliao Sarmento

Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto

Curated by James Lingwood and João Fernandes

On 23rd November the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art<http://www.serralves.pt/>, in Porto, Portugal, opens White Nights, the largest-ever retrospective exhibition of the work of Julião Sarmento (Lisbon, 1948). Sarmento's work explores themes of eroticism and sexuality, and questions concepts such as desire, absence, time and language, using different techniques - such as painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, film, photography and performance.

Over the last four decades, Julião Sarmento's work has achieved widespread international circulation, making him one of Portugal's best-known contemporary artists. His numerous exhibitions over the past decade have been shown in institutions such as the Tate Modern, London (UK), the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo (Brazil), the Fundación Marcelino Botin, Santander (Spain), the Van Abbbemuseum, Eindhoven (Netherlands), and the MNCARS, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (Spain).

On the opening night of the exhibition, 23rd November, the artist will present a series of performances that have been specifically designed for this occasion, which will be performed in Serralves art deco Villa by leading figures from the world of fashion, dance and other performing arts.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a major monographic publication on the work of Julião Sarmento, co-published with the prestigious German publisher, Hatje Cantz.v
João Fernandes, the Director of Serralves Museum, writes in the catalogue:

"Julião Sarmento was the first Portuguese artist whose work circulated internationally, although he has always lived in Portugal. He has presented pieces at museums, art centers, galleries, biennials, and large international exhibitions that have marked our era. Before Sarmento, artists like Vieira da Silva, in Paris, and Paula Rego, in London, were examples of how it was only by leaving the country that artists could freely develop their work, have the possibility of presenting it to the world, and be a part of the contemporary scene.

The end of the dictatorship in Portugal, and the consequent arrival of democracy in 1974, enabled Portuguese artists to end the isolation preventing them from getting their work known abroad, unless they emigrated: Sarmento was the first. To achieve this, he had to do what had never been done by an artist in Portugal: in a country almost totally lacking in the structures allowing him to do so, he had to be the producer and disseminator of his own work. Other artists have also had to do this, in Sarmento's and in following generations. Some, like Sarmento, have managed to see their work recognized.

The path was laid and today, despite current difficulties, it is easier to travel. Since then, institutions, galleries, art centers, and collections have sprung up all over the country and now provide some of the conditions that Sarmento's work (and that of so many Portuguese artists before him) did not have the chance to enjoy. At a time when economic difficulties are affecting the country once again, and therefore its cultural and artistic situation, it is important to remember how vital it is not to return to the complete absence of working conditions that Sarmento and many other Portuguese artists, before and since, have suffered.

White Nights, the title of one of his best-known series, is also the title of the exhibition that brings Julião Sarmento back to the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. He returns after having presented an anthological exhibition at the Serralves Villa in 1992 and having shown, in the Museum in 2002, his collaboration with Atom Egoyan for the Venice Biennale the previous year. White Nights is a new anthological exhibition, whose works were mainly chosen due to their relation with recognizable issues in Sarmento's oeuvre. Examples of this are the references to architecture, evident in his work, which led to specific exhibition architecture designed in collaboration with the artist, whose work on this project was unsurpassable."

Guided visits to the exhibition:

15th December, 18h30
By João Fernandes (exclusive to Serralves Friends)

10th January, 18h30
By Ricardo Nicolau

Opening: 23 november 2012

Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
Rua D. Joao de Castro, 210, Porto
Hours: Tuesday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Free of charge subject to acquisition of an entrance ticket in the Museum.
On Sundays, entrance is free of charge from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.. The free ticket is valid until 1.30pm.

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