An exhibition on the Santa Mònica Arts Center and new institutionalities opens in Porto

“Protótipos do desejo instituinte” will be presented at the Sismógrafo cultural center in Porto from September 13 to October 31

On 13 September at 5 p.m., Sismógrafo cultural centre in Porto will inaugurate Protótipos do desejo instituinte, an exhibition on the institutional transformations promoted in recent years by the Santa Mònica arts centre in Barcelona.

Curated by Clara Laguillo, with Marina Frean as associate curator, the exhibition takes the form of an archive-exhibition to present the relational, collective and performative artistic practices developed at Santa Mònica since 2021. It includes a selection of previously produced works representing the centre’s different exhibition cycles, featuring pieces by artists such as Joana Moll, Antoni Hervàs, Sofía Montenegro, Agustín Ortiz, Giulia Grumi, Mariona Moncunill, Marina Monsonís, Beth Ferguson, Sara Dean, and collectives such as Sindillar, Agitació Diska and the Assemblea d’Artistes d’Utopia Rambles.

The project uses Santa Mònica as a case study to highlight a new way of conceiving the cultural institution: open, porous, and capable of transformation through active listening to the artists and projects that take place within it. With this initiative, Sismógrafo seeks to share the experience with Porto’s artistic community and to open a dialogue with the Portuguese institutional context on what it means to be an arts centre in the 21st century.

The exhibition will remain open to visitors until 31 October 2025.