Artists Engaged? Maybe

We who wished To lay the foundation of kindness Could not ourselves be kind - Bertold Brecht, "To Those Born After" Artists Engaged? Maybe brings together artists from Europe, Africa and South Africa whose work is somehow engaged: an engagement that might be political—but never activist—an engagement with beauty, with art; it might be also an engagement with language(s), or with the communities these artists live in, or for whom they work. This exhibition features more than 20 works in diverse formats: photography, sculpture, painting, drawings, film and video, installations. These are all recent works interrelated with the contemporary world with all of its discontinuities and diverse configurations attributed by these artists. "The first and fundamental criterion established in bringing the works by participating artists together was a positive answer to the question of whether they recognized themselves in the exhibition's premises and whether they wanted to be a part of it by suggesting works or creating new ones expressly for the event." – António Pinto Ribeiro Curator: António Pinto Ribeiro Works by Athi-Patra Ruga (South Africa), Berna Reale (Brazil), Bouchra Khalili (France/Morocco), Bruno Boudjelal (France/Algeria), Celestino Mudaulane (Mozambique), Conrad Botes (South Africa), Demián Flores (Mexico), Eduardo Basualdo (Argentina), Eva Grubinger (Austria) [with Werner Feiersinger (Austria)], Fredy Alzate (Colombia), João Ferro Martins (Portugal), Johanna Calle (Colombia), Luiz Zerbini (Brazil), Miguel Jara (Colombia), Paul Edmunds (South Africa), Pedro Barateiro (Portugal), Raul Mourão (Brazil), Sandra Monterroso (Guatemala), Simon Gush (South Africa), Solon Ribeiro (Brazil), and Wim Botha (South Africa) Artists Engaged? Maybe is part of the Next Future/Próximo Futuro summer programming. Created in 1956, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation works in the fields of arts, charity, education and science. Its headquarters are in Lisbon, with delegations running in Paris and in London. Próximo Futuro/Next Future is a Gulbenkian programme created in 2009 and dedicated in particular, but not exclusively, to contemporary culture in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. www.gulbenkian.pt