ping! kick starts on 29th April at Porto Municipal Gallery

The Incursion Programme to the Gallery ping! is the new education project by Porto Municipal Gallery that provides workshops, debates, tours, visits, interpretative paths and movie sections throughout the coming months.

ping! aims to establish and maintain a close relationship with both academic and non-academic audiences, by artistic mediation and by encouraging the sharing of ideas and knowledge. The programme features free access initiatives, in the Municipal Gallery’s exhibition spaces, in the auditory of Almeida Garrett Municipal Library and in the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal, as well as in classrooms and other non-conventional learning places.

In the year 2021, ping! Puts forward an activity plan integrated in three thematic axes. “Gineceu & Estigma”, that is about opening up new perspectives on the Botanic field and featuring activities created by researchers and artists such as Yayo Herrero, Uriel Orlow or Carla Filipe, divided in two themes – “Ecopensamento”, which will promote the debate on new interdependence possibilities in the natural, social and political areas, and “Especulações Botânicas”, which shares issues raised by artists on the science that addresses the study of plants.

The first Portuguese Colonial Exhibition, held in 1934, is the starting point for the second axis. “Um Elefante no Palácio de Cristal”, which is curated by Alexandra Balona, Melissa Rodrigues and Nuno Coelho and the participation by the collective of artists InterStruct Collective. The programme will dwell on the visions and historic records, as well as its effects on contemporaneity through three subthemes: “Ética do Olhar e da Representação”, “Colonialismo, Capitalismo e Religião” and “Encenação do Império Colonial”. Each of this moments feature a set of sessions targeted at the general public and schools and also debates, film sessions, workshops and oriented tours by different invitees of several subject areas, namely Bambi Ceuppens, Cristina Roldão, Dori Nigro and Gisela Casimiro, just to mention a few.

The third axis of ping!, “Exodus”, is targeted at making an explicit knowledge to the city’s artistic fabric, by means of guided tours to galleries, exhibition halls and artists’ studios, delivered by artists, researchers and curators such as Carmo, Maura Marvão or Fátima Lambert.

ping! also puts forward two cross-cutting initiatives, specifically target at the school community: the “Visitas-Pavão”, a programme designed for students from pre-school to third graders, with the goal of promoting new interaction opportunities with the landscape, art and artists; and also the “Embaixadores ping!” initiative that will integrate young adults, such as secondary students and university students, in the construction of a platform to reflect upon contemporaneity.

This programme kicks-off on 29th April, at 7 pm, with a conference by Michael Marder, moderated by Mariana Pestana, at the auditorium of the Almeida Garrett Municipal Library. Marder’s work focuses on the areas of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory and phenomenology. His session is themed “Que tipo de crianças somos nós? Um caso para o cultivo vegetal da humanidade”, and features different approaches to a better relationship with the plant world.

All information on ping! and its activities can be consulted at Porto Municipal Gallery's website.