Episodes

Ready to plunge into the depths of art history to resurface with weird art fair histories from Prehistory, the Aztecs to today? Which is a way of asking: is the compulsion to buy rare goods and exemplary artefacts immemorial? How have we evolved into the format of the art fair? Art fairs seem to defy romantic visions of creat...

Can poetry provide clues to questions raised by contemporary art? Art sets the world in motion, sparks changes which we’re not always equipped to absorb, and even understand. Luís de Camões, the great Portuguese Renaissance poet wrote beautifully about art and change… and life. Our host, contemporary art writer and curator Jo...

So many definitions of contemporary art… but what if the notion of skill took us deeper into it? As a curator, our host often hears: “my kid could do this”. So, she put her art writer and curator talents to the task of uncovering expectations and misconceptions about visual arts that it expresses. This is also an artist conve...

Biography enlightens the work of an artist but, in rare occasions, it can obliterate it. A polemic curatorial choice in Ana Mendieta's exhibition at Tate Modern illustrates this puzzling question. This unexpected curatorial twist may lean into anti-feminism if we stay on the surface of the discourse. Dive into it with our hos...

What if weaving released untold stories? And how does textile art with such narrative yet abstract powers fit into contemporary art and its traditionally European systems? Joana’s conversation with contemporary artist Paula do Prado takes unexpected turns and spreads across at least 3 different continents–if not more. What in...

There are pockets of creativity in our everyday life. The embodied art of READING ALOUD is an overlooked source of joy, containing so many aspects that contemporary art and artists explore in their practice... Performance, drawing, text, breathing patterns... It all starts with Joana P. R. Neves, our host, asking what the bod...