With curatorship by IHA/ IN2PAST researchers Mariana Pinto dos Santos and Giorgia Casara and Teresa Monteiro (Casa Fernando Pessoa), the new exhibition ‘Almada and Pessoa: Conversation between libraries’ puts a selection of books that belonged to Almada Negreiros into dialogue with those of Fernando Pessoa, taking into account their shared complicity, friendships and common projects.

The exhibit, which showcases rare editions, manuscripts, book dummies, drawings, personalized dedications, and press clippings, opens on March 2nd at 4pm and runs until September 8th, at Casa Fernando Pessoa, in Lisbon.

Shown for the first time are two projects of illustrated dummies for Mensagem made by Almada, which he never published, as well as a first edition of Mensagem dedicated by Pessoa in which he addresses Almada as ‘Bebé de Orpheu!’ (‘Baby of Orpheu!’).

‘Almada was a driving force behind the creation of the Pessoan myth’, says Mariana Pinto dos Santos. ‘By isolating his image in the famous portrait he made for the Irmãos Unidos restaurant, where the Orpheu magazine group met – and which can be seen in the permanent exhibition at Casa Fernando Pessoa –, Almada is engraving himself also in the myth as the author of the image of Pessoa that would be perpetuated.’