Small Scales, Great Ambitions: Beggining as Method

Avenida 211 was a unique self-managed artistic project in Portugal. Although it ceased activity in 2014, it was from this project that Kunsthalle Lissabon emerged in 2009, initially occupying the exterior of the building on Rua Rosa Araújo before moving shortly afterwards to the first floor of no. 211 on Avenida da Liberdade.

Founded at a time when there was little systematic reflection in Lisbon or Portugal on the role and scope of art institutions, Kunsthalle Lissabon was able to develop a landmark exhibition programme, establish a distinctive international network of collaborations, and generate knowledge around alternative institutional models that could be collectively imagined and built—all thanks to the support of Avenida 211. From the outset, values such as sociability, generosity, and friendship formed the core of its institutional thinking and practice, foregrounding an ethics of responsibility and care for what we do, how and with whom we do it, and for whom we do it. At a time when the term “institution” was almost exclusively associated with large museums or art centres, Kunsthalle positioned itself as a small-scale institution with far-reaching ambitions.

In this context, so distant from today’s logic of “real-estate-ocracy,” what did it mean, after all, to create an institution from scratch? What were its aims, its challenges, and its possibilities at the end of the first decade of the 21st century? And what did the landscape of small art institutions in Lisbon look like at that time?

This conversation revisits that period and, in dialogue with two kindred projects (Maumaus and Old School), reflects on the continuities and differences between what was at stake then and today. It also seeks to understand why the current political, economic, and social context seems to make the emergence of new small-scale institutional projects—such as those that arose at the time—less likely, while opening a space for reflection on the past, present, and future of independent art institutions in Lisbon.

Participants: João Mourão and Luís Silva (Kunsthalle Lissabon), Jürgen Bock (Maumaus), Susana Pomba (Old School)

Conversation in the context of the exhibition Avenida 211: An Artists’ Space in Lisbon.