First Vatican Art Triennial arrives in Lisbon in October

A under the theme “Exercises in Empathy” (“Exercises of empathy”, in free translation), the triennial is an initiative of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, led by the portuguese cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça and, according to the Vatican, brings together “Catholic universities, artists, curators and cultural institutions from all over the world”, with the first edition to take place in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile, Bogotá, Boston, Milan, Lisbon and Luanda.

In the Portuguese capital, the triennial will run from 12 October to 15 December, at the Portuguese Catholic University (UCP), and will gather creations of Andreia Santana, Aires Mateus, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, Ana Vieira, Augusto Alves da Silva, Carlos Bunga, Cristián Salineros F., Daniel Blaufuks, Délio Jasse, Dimakatso Mathopa, Francesca Woodman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Heidi Bucher and Helena Almeida.

The list of artists from the Portuguese stage, published by the Vatican, also includes Irineu Destourelles, João Abel Manta, João Pedro Vale + Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Julião Sarmento, Lara Almárcegui, Maria Beatriz, Martha Rosler, Mona Hatoum, Nicolás Paris, Patrícia Garrido, Pedro Costa, Rafa Bqueer, René Tavares, Taysir Batniji, Vanderlei Lopes and William Eggleston.

Rui Chafes, in Milan, Nuno da Luz, in Santiago, Monica de Miranda and the collective The spacers in Luanda are other participants in the triennial, among about one hundred emerging and consecrated artists, such as the Thai Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Italian Sergio Maggioni, the Angolans Edson Chagas, Kiluanji Kia Henda and Tiago Mena Abrantes, plus the collective Generation 80, as well as the Brazilian Rodrigo Cass (which has a patent in Brotéria, in Lisbon, the individual exhibition “Sensitive Geometry”).

When announced, in October last year, the curator-general, Nuno Cresco, director of the School of Arts of the UPP, said that the initiative “dreamed” by Tolentino Mendonça aims to constitute itself as a “vast conversation” between art, education and culture.

“What we propose is an exhibition, spread throughout the world, that will bring together artists who speak different languages, who develop different poetic, artistic, cultural, social and political practices,” the curator explained, highlighting that, common to all of them, is the conviction that “art is a vehicle for a global conversation about the world and the human”.

Designed as “a collective project dedicated to artistic creation, scientific research and dialogue”, the triennial “explores the role of art in addressing the most urgent issues of our time through exhibitions, artistic orders, publications and public programs” and will culminate in Venice in 2027, according to the Vatican News portal.

The inaugural edition will reflect on the role of university education, human relations and the concept of empathy, having as reference the encyclical of Pope Leo XIV, “Magnifica Humanitas”, in which alerts to the simulation of “empathy or understanding” of artificial intelligence, without being able to “understand what [the chatboots] produce, because they do not inhabit the affective, relational and spiritual horizon in which the human being becomes truly wise”.

The Art Triennial, according to its presentation, seeks to “deepen this debate in the public space about safeguarding the human dimension”.

The first edition includes the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (September 27), followed by the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile (September 3,), the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Bogotá (September 9,), the Boston College (September 23,), the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan (October 6), and, after Lisbon, the Catholic University of Angola (October 29).