This exhibition presents a group of works by Portuguese and international artists who reconsider our connection with nature and develop their artistic practices in close relationship with the natural environment, with geology, anthropology, and ecology.

Conceived specifically for the Nadir Afonso Contemporary Art Museum, the exhibition is rooted on an important group of works from the Serralves Collection framed within the context of the artistic trend that first emerged in the late 1960s known as Land Art or earthworks. In this period of paradigm shift in the international artistic context, artists such as Richard Long (Bristol, 1946) and Hamish Fulton (London, 1946) in the UK; Robert Smithson (Passaic , 1938 – 1973, Amarillo), Nancy Holt (Worcester, 1938 – 2014, New York) and Ana Mendieta (Cuba, 1948 – 1985, New York) in the US; and Alberto Carneiro (São Mamede do Coronado, 1937 – 2017, Porto) in Portugal sought in the natural territory places and materials for the development of artistic projects intentionally distanced from the traditional spaces of creation and presentation of art. The use of natural raw materials, of photography, drawing, and language is recurrent in the work of these artists who document and transport their artistic experiences to the exhibition space.

Rather than offering an exhaustive presentation of the artistic research conducted in this context during the 1960s and 1970s or attempting to define a rigorous genealogy thereafter, Windlines establishes contact points between key works from this period and later works by artists with very diverse trajectories, tracing thematic, procedural, and material affinities. At a time when the possibility of reconciliation between humanity and nature seems to be increasingly remote, this exhibition presents a contemporary perspective on different proposals of artistic engagement with the natural environment.

This exhibition, curated by Joana Valsassina, is part of the Touring Exhibitions Programme of the Serralves Collection, which aims to make the Foundation’s collection accessible to different audiences across the country.

Organisation: Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto

Image: Alberto Carneiro, Sculpture Within the Forest, 1969. Coll. Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto. Acquisition in1991.

Photography: Filipe Braga, Fundação de Serralves, Porto