MAC/CCB 3rd Anniversary

MAC/CCB celebrates its 3rd anniversary from 23 to 25 October, with free admission throughout. We will open Here I Stand, an exhibition by Ângela Ferreira, and her large-scale work Zip Zap Circus will be installed in the square, where it will be activated by students from the Chapitô Circus School. Friday evening will continue with a DJ set, while Saturday will feature a “Discreet Music Series” concert with Nkisi and Gonçalo F. Cardoso / Gonzo, as well as conversations around Frida Orupabo’s exhibition, guided tours, and a lecture by António Guerreiro. The Playroom will be open for younger visitors, and we will also take the opportunity to present our latest catalogues, dedicated to the exhibitions Terra Crua, Multiple Eyes, Cloud of Confusion, and “May I Help You? Posso Ajudar?” Arts and Artists from the 1970s Onwards. 

It will be a great pleasure to celebrate this anniversary with you! 

23 October

→ 6:00pm in the MAC/CCB Auditorium
Pre-opening conversation with artist Ângela Ferreira and MAC/CCB curator and artistic director Nuria Enguita

→ 7:00pm on Floor 0
Openning exhibition Ângela Ferreira. Here I Stand

→ 7:30pm CCB Square 
Performance Zip Zap Circus School, by Ângela Ferreira performed by students from the Chapitô Circus School

The installation Zip Zap Circus School refers to two unrealised projects by modernist architects in different parts of the world: one by Mies van der Rohe in the Netherlands and the other by Pancho Guedes in South Africa. Using these plans and models as the basis for her work, Ângela Ferreira shows how projects can be adapted to other uses, contexts, lives, and events. The large-scale work is now being installed in the CCB Square in Lisbon, where it will be activated by students from the Chapitô Circus School.

→ 8:00pm on Floor 0
DJ SET by Party Smith

24 October

→ 3:00pm on Floor -1
Visit/conversation with curator Marta Mestre, Colectivo FACA (Andreia Coutinho and Maribel Mendes Sobreira), and Ícaro Lira, in the context of the exhibition Frida Orupabo. Cloud of Confusion

→ 5:00pm on Floor -1
“Discreet Music Series,” with Nkisi and Gonçalo F. Cardoso / Gonzo. A gathering exploring immersion—in its meditative and sonic dimensions—within the space of the exhibition Frida Orupabo. Cloud of Confusion

The Discreet Music Series, unfolding across four events throughout the year, brings together eight artists in pairs to create environments conceived as atmospheres of different tonalities, shaped both by the influences and distinctive characteristics of the artists involved and by the spaces in which the trajectories of their sounds unfold. Created by Lovers & Lillypops, the project begins at MAC/CCB with the meeting between Nkisi (a DJ, producer, and visual artist born in the Congo and raised in Belgium) and Gonçalo F. Cardoso (a travelling musician and sound artist whose practice is closely aligned with artistic research).

→ 6:00pm at CCB Square
Performance Zip Zap Circus School, by Ângela Ferreira performed by students from the Chapitô Circus School

25 October

→ 3:00pm, Floor 0
Visit/conversation with Ângela Ferreira and Nuria Enguita, in the context of the exhibition Ângela Ferreira. Here I Stand

→ 4:00pm in the MAC/CCB Auditorium
Presentation of the catalogues published in 2026

→ 5:00pm in the MAC/CCB Auditorium
The Temptation of Legibility: The Critical Dimension of Art in the Face of Thematic Conformism. Lecture by António Guerreiro, introduced by Nuria Enguita

In many contemporary artworks, we can discern a strong temptation towards legibility, as though they were driven by a desire for meaning, in the manner of a text articulating more or less codified thematic content. This type of art, which makes its political meaning explicit and expresses a desire to respond critically to the challenges of its time, is often deeply conformist. Examining these questions entails diagnosing the state of art criticism and the discourses that legitimise contemporary art in many of its most conspicuous materialisations.