Seeing and Reading Paulo de Cantos

VER E LER PAULO DE CANTOS

Theatre 11€

Friday 25 September · until 4 Oct

In 2026, MUDE presents the most extensive exhibition ever dedicated to Paulo de Cantos (1892–1979), bringing together 31 of the 45 books self-published by this teacher and editor with a singularly experimental graphic output, curated by António Silveira Gomes and Cláudia Castelo.

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 growing 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 editor who, between 1917 and 1969, developed a singular graphic output, marked by pedagogical experimentalism and in dialogue with modernism. It is in this framework that MUDE 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 to the dissemination of practices that stimulate critical reflection. The value of Cantos's work has already been recognised in the inclusion of his pieces 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 medium of a practice oriented towards 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 noteworthy 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 with graphic design by António Silveira Gomes and Cláudia Castelo, and exhibition design by José Albergaria, this is the most extensive exhibition ever dedicated to the author, featuring 31 of the 45 books self-published by Cantos, notably those belonging to the MUDE 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 Política do Espírito and of the Estado Novo's luso-tropicalism 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