PARTIDA…, curated by Hugo Dinis at MU.SA - Museu das Artes de Sintra

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DATE

06 Aug 2025

AUTHOR

Tomás Saraiva

PARTIDA…, curated by Hugo Dinis at MU.SA - Museu das Artes de Sintra

AUTHOR

Tomás Saraiva

It is under the curatorial guidance of Hugo Dinis that the first moment of the exhibition cycle "Joga o Jogo: Partida…" (Play the Game: Departure...) takes place at the Museu das Artes de Sintra, to combine decentralization and democratization in the field of contemporary art. Paying attention to the stories of each location, the project is concerned with bringing the public closer to what belongs to them, through multiple developments of the game's concept: word play, turning the game, shadow play, mind play, waist play, off game, clean/dirty play, luck/chance play and power play. Here, working with the collection of Caixa Geral de Depósitos in dialogue with the guest artist Pauliana Valente Pimentel and the Municipal Art Collection, opportunities arise for using creativity as a complement to generate possible tactics, improvised strategies, or to believe a little more in luck.

Superstition is a useful prop for this visit. Hence, the entrance with the right foot in the old Casino of Sintra - now the Museu das Artes de Sintra - is inevitable, which, in fact, never fulfilled its function due to the failure to obtain a gaming license. At the entrance, right in front, is the building that never was, in a supposed beginning marked by the pieces of marble fitted together by José Pedro Croft. The fine line that decides luck and the fear of misfortune that hangs in the air, which never ceases to tickle with a certain omen…

Is the game lost against itself? That's the question that lurks among the ruins, the toil and the charm of the building, now recovered through historical photographs from the Sintra Municipal Archive, on display along the route, on the 1st floor. This is how Hugo Dinis evokes the construction of the new action plan, the game atmosphere, the field ready to debut, whose creative lines provide us with strategies and tricks. In constant activity, we explore the nine mutations between the limits of playful and formality, the leisure and business that the game can often become and in which, regardless of the side in action – and forgive me Jorge Perestrelo – we are the ones who walk and run to dictate the end of the game (if there is one), and not time.

And by definition, if there is a game, there will be rules…

Here, however, it won't be as straightforward as that. Walking through the rooms where the games are played, you quickly discover that there are no rules governing such an arena, but you can build them if you want to. Whether under or over the table, we are provided with calls, clues, and direct or indirect signals. Games within games are also offered, which, from time to time, convincingly bluff us... Playing is being in a world outside of this one, illusory, inventive. Recalling Italo Calvino, who saw the game as an essential vitamin for the act of creation, or co-creation, this will be a space for taking on narratives, new stories based on the cards or beads that come out on the dice. We're also opponents.

It is precisely in this collaborative Act, which defines the idea of play, that Pauliana Valente Pimentel's New Age Kids project is integrated. The first artist to be invited to the Joga o Jogo (Play the Game) cycle has been developing this work since 2023, as part of her PhD in Contemporary Art at the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra, starting by documenting/portraying a group of 12 queer young people – who are her son's close circle – in processes of identity metamorphosis. In the joint work with the group, which is still in progress, through the exchange of letters, self-portrait drawings, and disposable cameras that the artist gives to the young people, relationships of closeness and intimacy are established, glaring in the images throughout the exhibition. The day-to-day life, the integration and relationship with the environments that surround the group, and the search for the details that shape the processes of transformation and discovery tell an interweaving of stories that are building these new times.

The exercise of incorporating photographs throughout the exhibition into a dialogue with other pieces outlines the "curatorial game" with Hugo Dinis, which goes beyond visual, empathetic, existential choices or more or less close relationships. After all, making exhibitions isn't just about showing pieces, it's about taking care of this activity and respecting it as the greatest asset it is.

With works by Ana Jotta, Ana Vieira, Ana Vidigal, Bruno Pacheco, Bruno Zhu, Fernanda Fragateiro, Gaëtan, Helena Almeida, João Penalva, João Vieira, Joaquim Rodrigo, José Pedro Croft, Júlia Ventura, Leonor Antunes, Lourdes Castro, Luísa Correia Pereira, Luísa Cunha, Noronha da Costa, Pauliana Valente Pimentel, Pedro Cabrita Reis and Susanne Themlitz, the exhibition Partida..., the first part of the exhibition cycle Joga o Jogo (Play the Game), curated by Hugo Dinis, is on show at MU.SA – Museu das Artes de Sintra until August 31st.

BIOGRAPHY

Tomás Saraiva (b. 2002) has a degree in Art and Heritage Sciences from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon and is studying for a master's degree in Curatorial Studies at the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra. Between painting and curating, he combines the artistic thinking he has been developing with his curatorial values, either solo or as a group. She has held and participated in several exhibitions at national and international level.

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