ARTWORKS CONNECTS
Kunsthalle Lissabon
Curatorial Residency Program in Athens: October-November 2026
João Mourão and Luís Silva are a curatorial duo whose practice began in 2009, when they co-founded Kunsthalle Lissabon as a platform for experimental institutional models. They were the curators of the Portugal Pavilion at the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale (2022) with Vampires in Space, a solo project by Isadora Neves Marques. In 2027, they will co-curate ARCO2046, the central project of ARCOmadrid.
A selection of recent projects includes solo exhibitions by Inês Zenha (CA2M, Madrid, Spain and CAM Gulbenkian, Lisbon), Mounira Al Solh (Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal), Jonathas de Andrade (CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France and MAAT, Lisbon), Manuela Solano (Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil), among others. As co-directors of Kunsthalle Lissabon, they have presented solo exhibitions by June Crespo, Saodat Ismailova, Teresa Solar, La Chola Poblete, Gabriel Chaile, Ad Minoliti, Zheng Bo, Laure Prouvost, Caroline Mesquita, Bruno Zhu, Sol Calero, Petrit Halilaj, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, among many others. Alongside their curatorial practice, they contribute regularly to various publications and have edited several monographs. They were the curators of ZONA MACO SUR (2015 – 2017), in Mexico City and Artissima’s Disegni section (2017 -2019), in Turin.
Their research in Athens will connect to their curatorial practice and their longstanding interest in queerness, love, friendship, care, and solidarity as ways of imagining alternative forms of cultural production and collective life. They are particularly interested in encountering local artistic and self-organized practices that challenge dominant structures and propose different forms of visibility, belonging, and togetherness.