Other perspectives - New projects

The Outros Olhares project, which began in March 2010, aims to encourage an extended reflection on the collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado. At the same time, it aims to provide a wide-ranging view of Portuguese art from 1850 to the present.

In the first cycle of the programme, art historians, curators, art critics and artists were invited to select a work from the museum's collection that would represent a specific decade. The chosen pieces were displayed in rotation in the atrium on floor 1, an emblematic space within the building which also served as the setting for an informal debate with each guest in relation to the work being shown each month.

In 2011, within the scope of the commemorations for the centenary of MNAC – Museu do Chiado, four renowned artists on the Portuguese scene, none of whom are represented in the collection, were challenged to create previously unseen works based on a view of the museum “from the outside looking in”. This proposal also revisits the concept of the Interferências project, carried out in 1994, which challenged several artists to create new works, the theme of which would be the collection of the MNAC - Museu do Chiado. The works would subsequently come to be included in the museum’s collection.

Throughout the second half of 2011, the atrium on floor 1 will successively host specific projects by Ana Vidigal, Rodrigo Oliveira, António Olaio and Xana. New works, accompanied by a short text by the artists, which show us new perspectives from which to relate to the museum and its collection, and propel in other directions the reflection that has been encouraged and that is to be continued in the dialogue with the public.