Collective exhibition "Soft Ground"

Featuring works by Anne Lefebvre, Antonio Társis, Artur Lescher, Cristiano Lenhardt, Damián Ortega, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Erika Verzutti, Ernesto Neto, Flávia Vieira, João Maria Gusmão, Laís Amaral, Luiz Zerbini, Lygia Pape, Manuella Silveira, Marcius Galan, Marina Rheingantz, Marcos Siqueira, Patrícia Leite, Paulo Nimer Pjota, Paula Siebra, Pedro Tudela, Pedro Vaz, Rivane Neuenschwander, Santídio Pereira, Solange Pessoa, and Vasco Futscher.

A Forts D'Aloia & Gabriel is pleased to announce Soft Ground, the sixth edition of its annual summer exhibition in Comporta, Portugal, presented for the second consecutive year in collaboration with DM Mendes Wood and, for the first time, with the Portuguese gallery Kubikgallery.

This year's program takes place in two venues: the Comporta Cultural Center and the Rice Museum. The exhibition places contemporary art in dialogue with the unique atmosphere of the region, proposing a slower and more contemplative experience. Based on openness and dialogue, the initiative reflects the collaborative spirit of the galleries by fostering meaningful partnerships with related institutions.

Situated between the extensive rice paddies and golden dunes of Comporta — one of the longest continuous beaches in the world and one of the most important nature reserves in Europe — Soft Ground This project confronts the growing pressures currently facing the region. Recent seasons of extreme weather events have made it impossible to ignore the gravity of the situation: storms advancing on the coast, entire cities submerged by floods, a landscape transforming before our eyes with a speed and violence that leaves no room for doubt. “I have witnessed the transformation of this region over the last few decades, and these debates have become more urgent than ever,” says Maria Ana Pimenta, partner and international director of Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, the creator of the annual project. “We are interested in bringing a powerful visual and material experience to Comporta, while simultaneously opening a dialogue on issues central to this region and deeply connected to the practices of our artists.”

It was precisely this feeling of accelerating crisis that gave the exhibition its urgency. “The changes we are witnessing are not only ecological, but also social and political, and we felt that this needed to be addressed now, through art,” says Carolyn Drake Kandiyoti, partner at Mendes Wood DM. “The climate crisis and real estate speculation have ceased to be abstract forces; they are physically reshaping the earth and the lives of those who inhabit it.”

Through different languages, the artists attentively observe this moment of transition. Instead of elegies to what has been lost, the works ask what comes next and whether there is still time to shape that future. Soft Ground The exhibition is presented in two spaces by three galleries whose collaboration reflects the shared conviction that the moment demands a collective response, an artistic exchange that transcends traditional exhibition models. Kubik Gallery has been present in Comporta for the past two summers, deepening its relationship with the region and its community. “Joining forces with Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel and Mendes Wood DM in Soft Ground allows us to create something with real reach,” says João Azinheiro, director of Kubik Gallery. “An exhibition that speaks to the region as a whole and to the scale of the challenges at stake.” Together, the three galleries promote an urgent dialogue between fragile gestures of care and preservation and the ecological, social, and political forces that threaten to overwhelm them.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a critical essay by curator and writer Filipa Ramos. Ramos is one of the most relevant voices at the intersection of art, ecology, and moving image, recognized for her rigorous research on multispecies coexistence, environmental fragility, and landscape politics. Her text will offer a critical framework for the issues raised by the exhibition: the land, transformation, and the forms of attention and care that we still need to choose to practice.

Service
Exhibition | Soft Ground
From July 4th to September 5th
Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:30 am to 21 pm