See and Read Paulo de Cantos

VER E LER PAULO DE CANTOS

Theatre 11€

Tuesday 22 September · until 4 Oct

MUDE presents the most extensive exhibition devoted to Paulo de Cantos, featuring 31 of the 45 self-published books by this experimental graphic designer, teacher and editor. The show includes his 'two-faced' books and editorial objects that challenge linear reading.

Synopsis Due to maintenance work in the museum space, online sales are suspended from 7 July 2026 to 19 July 2026. However, tickets can be purchased at the local box office. In a context marked by the expansion of Artificial Intelligence and the increasing dematerialisation of objects, it becomes particularly relevant to revisit, from a design perspective, the experimental and manual dimension of the work of Paulo de Cantos (1892–1979), a teacher and publisher who, between 1917 and 1969, developed a singular graphic output marked by pedagogical experimentalism and in dialogue with modernism. It is within this framework that MUDE has programmed and presents, in 2026, an exhibition dedicated to a complex author still insufficiently recognised by design historiography. This reaffirms the Museum's commitment to research and the dissemination of practices that stimulate critical reflection. The value of Cantos's work has already been reflected in the inclusion of his works in the Museum's long-term exhibition and in the creation, in 2025, of the Paulo de Cantos Collection. This author's work found in the book the privileged support for a practice aimed at overcoming physical and conceptual limits. It also materialised in manuals, postcards and editorial objects that explore typographic language, the geometry of forms and humour. Particularly notable are the so-called 'two-faced' books, where the linearity of reading is replaced by playful, circular paths in which the end often becomes a new beginning. Curated and graphically designed by António Silveira Gomes and Cláudia Castelo, with exhibition design by José Albergaria, this is the most extensive exhibition devoted to the author, featuring 31 of the 45 self-published books by Cantos, namely those belonging to MUDE's collection. The result of a research process begun in the late 1990s, the curators state: 'On the margins of history, Cantos was an outsider with an unusual body of work that conveyed some of the ideas of the Politics of the Spirit and the luso-tropicalism of the Estado Novo with doses of humour and nonchalance that did not belong to the canon. The book was his form of expression, whose physical and conceptual limits he sought to transcend throughout his life.' Opening Hours Summer hours: (April to September) Tuesday to Thursday: 10am - 7pm Friday and Saturday: 10am - 9pm Sunday: 10am - 7pm Winter hours: (October to March) Tuesday to Thursday: 10am - 6pm Friday and Saturday: 10am - 8pm Sunday: 10am - 6pm The museum is closed on Mondays, 25 December and 1 January. On 24 and 31 December, the museum closes at 4pm. Last entry at 3:30pm. Prices DISCOUNTS Young Students (13-25 years) Seniors