School of Arts (SoA) at Universidade católica Portuguesa wishes the entire community a Merry Christmas and an excellent 2026!
To contribute to a more vibrant 2026, School of Arts has prepared a program of activities, with open classes, concerts, conferences, exhibitions, film screenings, performances, artistic residencies, and a new edition of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema, this year in collaboration with the XVI Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture.
Throughout the year, SoA will welcome renowned national and international artists, filmmakers, and authors for a reflection on art, with the presentation of works that challenge the senses and stimulate critical thinking.
Cycle of Concerts, Conferences, Exhibitions and Performances
In February, we will kick off our usual Concert, Conference, Exhibition, and Performance Series. This year's theme, “Art + Tech x Cosmos =,” invites reflection on the intersection between art and technology, and how this can stimulate thinking about a rapidly changing world.The relationship between art and technology has been a subject of interest at various points in history - from the invention of ancient tools and industrial machines to the emergence of cybernetics, the Internet, and the latest advances in AI and quantum computing. New understandings, narratives, and devices emerge when art and technology converge, generating new knowledge that neither field could achieve alone, in isolation.
It is crucial to recognize, however, that technology is never a neutral force; it is always intertwined with and shaped by the ways in which a culture understands its world and its ways of life — its cosmos. This approach has become even more relevant in the current era of Artificial Intelligence to challenge the homogenizing force of Western technological universalism. Instead, it proposes a pluralversal understanding based on diverse cultural and metaphysical traditions, that is, technodiversity - the multiplicity of technological imaginaries, shaped by distinct cultural histories, myths, and worldviews.
The program brings together artists, creative technologists, curators, writers, and thinkers with contributions spanning various thematic constellations: from the spiritual and mythical, socio-technological infrastructures, and (de)colonial logics, to speculative futures. Through these contributions, the program explores the potential to reshape how we think about human and non-human creativity, how we experience the convergence of art and technology, and how their imaginative possibilities can inspire new cultural practices and worlds.
Curated by Joasia Krysa (curator and professor at the Liverpool School of Art and Design), Nuno Crespo, and Daniel Ribas, the cycle “Art + Tech x Cosmos = ” will bring to the School of Arts, among others, Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley, Diana Policarpo, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, Hana E. Amori from Keiken Collective, João Melo, João Pimenta Gomes, Joasia Krysa, Legacy Russel, Nuno Loureiro, Pita Arreola and Val Ravaglia to School of Arts.
Opening of new exhibitions
By the end of the year, SoA will present new exhibitions of unpublished projects, as well as new iterations shown for the first time. The opening dates will be announced shortly. The exhibition program opens with an exhibition by Tiago Madaleno and Joana Padrão in January, followed by exhibitions by Teatro Praga in March and Rodrigo Cass in May.
As part of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema, which will take place in association with the Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture, School of Arts will organize, in Lisbon, the exhibition Arquivo da Desobediência (Archive of Disobedience), a curatorial project initiated by Marco Scotini in Berlin in 2005 as a traveling exhibition of videos, graphic materials, and ephemera. Since then, it has developed into an ongoing, multi-phase film archive and a platform for discussion dedicated to the relationship between artistic practices and political action.
Over the last few years, the Archive of Disobedience has been presented at international institutions such as the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Nottingham Contemporary, Raven Row (London), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston), Bildmuseet (Umeå), and Castello di Rivoli (Turin), with one of its most recent presentations taking place at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
The exhibition cycle closes with an exhibition by Juan Araújo in October.
Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema
in association with XVI Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture
Disobedience
From June 29 to July 3, the eighth edition of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema will take place. In a special edition organized in partnership with the Lisbon Consortium, the Summer School will be held at the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon and will be dedicated to the theme of Disobedience as an artistic practice and idea, exploring its multiple forms, dynamics, and limits.
Over the course of a week, in parallel with the Summer School's program of lectures, masterclasses, and doctoral sessions, the curator—together with guest artists, including Ângela Ferreira—will lead an intensive program of workshops, film sessions, talks, and activities...
This edition offers an immersive workspace, taking the project beyond its exhibition context and focusing on its educational, investigative, and collaborative potential.
Conferences
The new year will see the return of the School of Arts' annual conferences: EPoCH in March, Ink & Motion in April, Spring Seminar in May, Film Education in June, and Explorations on Sound and New Media Art in November.
The highlight will be EPoCH 2026, with the theme Heritage future(s) / future heritage(s): on the threshold of change, organized in connection with Transform4Europe (T4EU) and part of the broader framework of the T4EU Conference on Sustainable Heritage and the T4EU European Week of Shared Heritage. The 2026 edition of EPoCH takes as its starting point the related and open concepts of the future(s) of heritage and the heritage(s) of the future. These notions challenge us to critically reflect on the evolving landscapes of conservation and restoration and heritage studies, and to imagine new configurations of practice, ethics, and responsibility on the threshold of change.
