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People in Motion | Pessoas em Movimento

In partnership with the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Vatican Museums, the Monastery of Leça do Balio will inaugurate, on 25 September, the exhibition People in Motion, an ode to migration, belonging, and empathy.

Sculpture, photography, literature, installation, video, and performance intertwine in a new exhibition cycle curated by Roberto Cremascoli, featuring contributions from Álvaro Siza, Afonso Cruz, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Isabel Lucas, José Luís Peixoto, Attilio Fiumarella, Inês d’Orey, Nuno Cera, Paulo Catrica, Rita Burmester, Mónica de Miranda, and Rita Nery.

ACT I

The first act, entitled The Encounter, brings together the sculptural figures by Álvaro Siza, which travelled from Portugal to Venice and now return home as pilgrims walking between the sacred and the everyday. The tales and chronicles of five writers form the script, illustrated by five photographers. Through the written word, Afonso Cruz, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Isabel Lucas, and José Luís Peixoto explore themes such as identity, crossing, and memory. The perspectives of Attilio Fiumarella, Inês d’Orey, Nuno Cera, Paulo Catrica, and Rita Burmester reveal images that question territory and belonging.

ACT II

In the second act, the installations by Mónica de Miranda and Rita Nery create spaces of shelter and listening. Visual artist Mónica de Miranda presents Greenhouse, a Creole garden that combines sculpture, stage, installation, and meeting place. The project questions how soil, land, and borders relate to the politics of the body in the present.

ACT III

The vegetable garden forms the third act of the exhibition. Comprising several sections of vegetables, aromatic herbs, wild herbs, and edible flowers, this garden is subdivided into geographic zones. Seeds, like people, have travelled for centuries across continents, becoming migrants themselves. A large community bench defines the perimeter of the garden in the orchard, and a marble sculpture welcomes visitors. The garden’s design narrates the journey of seeds and their geographies.

The exhibition is inspired by the project Social Friendship, Meeting In The Garden, the Holy See’s participation in the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice Biennale 2023, commissioned by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça (Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See) and curated by Italian architect Roberto Cremascoli.

At the Monastery of Leça do Balio in Matosinhos, sculpture, photography, literature, installation, video, and performance intertwine in an exhibition divided into three acts, observing a world in motion – people, seeds, ideas – and inviting visitors to listen, to welcome, and to act together.

Visit the exhibition People in Motion | Pessoas em Movimento from 25 September.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

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