From 13th October, Universidade Católica Portuguesa will host, at its Lisbon campus, the first Triennial of Art from Catholic Universities (ArtCut), organised by the Vatican, with Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça as general commissioner and Nuno Crespo, director of the School of Arts, as chief curator.
Organised by the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, the Catholic Universities Art Triennale is an international initiative that will take place in eight cities across seven countries and three continents throughout 2026 and 2027, bringing together seven Catholic universities, 104 artists, 14 curators and various cultural institutions from around the world.
The first chapter of ArtCut begins in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 27 August, followed by Santiago de Chile (Chile, 3 September), Bogotá (Colombia, 9 September), Boston (USA, 23 September) and Milan (Italy, 6 October). In Lisbon (Portugal), it will run from 13 October to 15 December, then move to Luanda (Angola, 29 October) and, finally, Venice (Italy).
Joining Universidade Católica Portuguesa at the triennial are the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile), the Pontifical Javeriana University (Colombia), Boston College (USA), the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy) and the Catholic University of Angola (Luanda), Angola.
In Lisbon, renowned artists such as Andreia Santana, Aires Mateus, Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, Ana Vieira, Augusto Alves da Silva, Carlos Bunga, Cristián Salineros F., Daniel Blaufuks, Délio Jasse, Dimakatso Mathopa, Francesca Woodman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Heidi Bucher, Helena Almeida, Irineu Destourelles, João Abel Manta, João Pedro Vale and Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Julião Sarmento, Lara Almárcegui, Maria Beatriz, Martha Rosler, Mona Hatoum, Nicolás Paris, Patrícia Garrido, Pedro Costa, Rafa Bqueer, René Tavares, Taysir Batniji, Vanderlei Lopes and William Eggleston.
Under the theme ‘Exercises in Empathy’, ArtCut was conceived as a collective project dedicated to artistic creation, scientific research and dialogue, exploring the role of art in addressing the most pressing issues of our time through exhibitions, commissioned artworks, publications and public programmes. By bringing together an international network of universities and various stakeholders, it also seeks to reflect on the role of university education, human relationships and the concept of empathy, giving substance to what Pope Leo XIV states in the Encyclical ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ regarding so-called artificial intelligences, which ‘can simulate empathy or understanding, but do not understand what they produce, because they do not inhabit the affective, relational and spiritual horizon in which human beings become truly wise’ (MH, no. 99). Thus, ArtCut also aims to further this debate in the public sphere concerning the safeguarding of the human dimension.
In this regard, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, recalls that when Pope John Paul II, in what is regarded as the Magna Carta of Catholic Universities, described them as centres of creativity and influence, he was setting out a programme that each generation is called upon to put into practice with renewed vigour. The university, as an educational community, strengthens the human capacity to create — to generate new ideas, to organise what previously seemed fragmented, to imagine new versions of the world — and must be seen as an invitation to participate in an act of co-creation, rather than as a mere technical exercise in repetition. Pope Leo XIV, in *Magnifica Humanitas*, encourages universities to interpret the complexity of today’s challenges creatively and to commit themselves ‘to making the life of our societies more just and fraternal’ (MH, no. 47).
