The catalogue for the exhibition ‘Problemas do Primitivismo – a partir de Portugal’ (‘Troubles with Primitivism – a view from Portugal’), which was on show at the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (CIAJG) until November 17^th, will be launched in Lisbon on November 28^th, at 6 pm, at the Linha de Sombra bookstore (Cinemateca Portuguesa).

Edited by exhibition curators Mariana Pinto dos Santos, IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher, and Marta Mestre, CIAJG’s artistic director, it will be presented by IHC – NOVA FCSH researchers Sofia Victorino and Manuela Ribeiro Sanches. Designed by Sofia Gonçalves, and with the participation of several authors, the publication aims not only to document the exhibition that opened in Guimarães in May 2024, but also to question the experience of ‘primitivism’ within the framework of a modernity that was made in a Eurocentric way, from the Portuguese context.

Based on an extensive collection of private and institutional archives, mostly located in Portugal, the bilingual 408-page edition published by A Oficina, CIAJG and Documenta/Sistema Solar unfolds a visual montage related to the idea of ‘primitivism’ through the interpermeable keywords: Civilisation, Museum, Naive, ‘Portuguese Sea’, ‘Jazz-Band’ and Extraction.

With more than 400 images by artists and from the archives, the volume includes essays by both curators and texts by a wide range of authors who have helped to think critically about ‘primitivism’, including Egídia Souto and Philippe Charlier, IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher Joana Cunha Leal, IHC – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher José Neves, IHA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher Margarida Cafede Moura, CRIA – NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST researcher Maria Cardeira da Silva, Nuno Porto, Rita Chaves, Tiago Saraiva, Vera Marques Alves, and Wladimir Brito, among others.

An exhaustive documentation of the exhibition, including lists of works, texts and installation views, complements the contents of this publication, with reproductions of works of art by, among others: António Areal, Canto da Maya, Cruzeiro Seixas, Eduardo Batarda, Elo Vega + Rogélio López Cuenca, Ernesto de Sousa, Franklin Vilas Boas, Ilídio Candja Candja, Joaquim Rodrigo, José de Almada Negreiros, José de Guimarães, Júlio Reis Pereira, Kiluanji K. Henda, Ludgero Almeida, Malangatana, Maria Keil, Mário Novais, Querubim Lapa, Rosa Ramalho, Tarsila do Amaral, and Uriel Orlow.