Exhibitions
MACAM and how a private collection becomes a public museum
The MACAM – Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins was born from an unusual gesture: transforming a private collection, built up over decades, into an institution open to the public and to contemporary debate. Located in Lisbon, the museum presents itself as a key new player in the Portuguese and European cultural ecosystem, articulating memory, architecture, and critical thought through art.
The origins of MACAM lie in the collection of Armando Martins, begun in the 1970s and now considered one of the most important in Portugal in the field of modern and contemporary art. Far from responding to a speculative logic, the collection has been built from a coherent and personal perspective, attentive to the artistic movements that have marked the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, with a particular sensitivity to the intersections between tradition and experimentation.
Carlos Aires, Sweet Dreams ara made of this, 2016.
The collection brings together works by Portuguese and international artists, establishing a fluid dialogue between the local and the global. Painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation coexist in a collection that traces a broad journey through the main currents of contemporary art, without losing sight of the cultural and political singularities of each context. MACAM does not propose a linear reading of art history, but rather a constellation of perspectives that are activated through relationships, tensions, and resonances between works.
The museum occupies a building steeped in history, renovated to house the museum program without erasing traces of the past. This coexistence of architectural heritage and contemporary language defines the identity of MACAM: a space where time doesn't overlap, but rather engages in dialogue. The architecture complements the exhibition experience with understated elegance, allowing the artworks to breathe and enabling visitors to construct their own journey.
Nadir Afonso, Agra Nocturne 1980 © MACAM.
Beyond the display of its permanent collection, MACAM is conceived as a vibrant space, committed to research, education, and the production of critical thought. Temporary exhibitions, public programs, publications, and educational activities broaden the museum's reach, positioning it as an active platform for reflecting on the cultural, social, and political challenges of our time.
José de Almada Negreiros, Meninas a ler [Girls reading]sd
The breadth and coherence of the collection are reflected in an exceptional group of artists that articulates a constant dialogue between the history of Portuguese art and the main international currents of the 20th and 21st centuries. Fundamental figures of the national context such as Helena Almeida, Paula Rego, Júlio Pomar, Almada Negreiros, Lourdes Castro, Nikias Skapinakis, Ângelo de Sousa, Eduardo Viana, José Malhoa, Joaquim Rodrigo, António Dacosta, Eduardo Nery, Julião Sarmento, José de Guimarães, Guilherme Santa Rita and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva coexist with key names of the international scene such as Marina Abramović, John Baldessari, Daniel Buren, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Dan Graham, Albert Oehlen, Thomas Ruff, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Vik Muniz, Ernesto Neto, René Bertholo and Nadir Afonso.
This intersection of generations, geographies, and languages reinforces the museum's identity as a meeting place for diverse artistic practices, where conceptual experimentation, formal research, and commitment to the social and political context intertwine in an open and constantly evolving narrative.
Paloma Varga Weisz, Still Life2016 © MACAM/Vasco Stocker Vilhena.
