LUIS MIGUEL CINTRA - SMALL THEATRE OF THE WORLD

Luis Miguel Cintra (Madrid, 1949) is a major figure in Portuguese theatre and one of the most striking faces of Portuguese cinema over the last sixty years, he has staged and performed hundreds of plays, both classic and contemporary, which are amongst the most important texts in world dramaturgy. He has also appeared as an actor in more than six dozen films and was, as we know, one of the most regular guests in Manoel de Oliveira's work.

Alongside the more recognizable side of his work, over the last few decades Luis Miguel Cintra has been collecting an overwhelming number of sculptural pieces (or ‘figures’, as he calls them): sacred art or popular figurines, rarities or uninteresting statuettes, human or animal representations of all sizes, colours and shapes. More than a collection – or its opposite – this unusual bestiary has completely invaded his Lisbon flat.

With the closure of Cornucópia in 2016, and with a reduced theatrical activity, Luis Miguel Cintra has cohabited with these mysterious occupants, sharing his house, his life and an irrepressible desire for theatre. In a logic that is more dramaturgical than decorative, the stage director has turned these figures into an unusual theatre troupe: actors and characters compelled to dialogue and interact in unexpected ways in a polyphony of gestures, gazes and expressions that are ultimately an extension of the act of staging: a static theatre, but not entirely immobile, a silent theatre, but not entirely mute.

This exhibition aims to fulfil two fundamental objectives: to re-stage, in the art gallery, a summary of Luis Miguel Cintra’s career as an actor and stage director and, in dialogue with the work of Manoel de Oliveira, to reflect on the convergence (and divergence) between three ways to seeing and giving to see: theatre, cinema and exhibition.

The exhibition is organised by the Serralves Foundation — Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira and curated by Luis Miguel Cintra and António Preto and coordinated by Carla Almeida.