Paulo de Cantos

Other 11€

Sunday 27 September · until 4 Oct

Get tickets

The exhibition Ver e Ler presents the self-published work of Paulo de Cantos (1892-1979), a multifaceted figure — pedagogue, artist, publisher and collector — whose visually surprising graphic objects challenge the boundaries between visual creation and the transmission of knowledge.

The exhibition Ver e Ler presents the self-published work of Paulo de Cantos (1892-1979). A multifaceted figure — pedagogue, artist, publisher and collector — Paulo de Cantos left a legacy of strong stylistic unity and visually surprising graphic objects that challenge the boundaries between visual creation and the transmission of knowledge. The aim is to bring to the centre of the debate a complex author who is still little recognised by design historiography, with the purpose of promoting a critical (re)discovery of fundamental figures of our visual culture. In this way, the commitment made at the Museum of Design to research and the dissemination of practices that intersect art, pedagogy and critical thought through design is reaffirmed. The five thematic sections present Paulo de Cantos' work in a contextualised way, proposing reflections on how design, as a teaching methodology, can reconfigure the way we look at and understand the world. The book takes centre stage, having been the author's privileged medium; throughout his life, he sought to overcome the physical and conceptual limits of the printed object. On display are school textbooks, primers, essays, game-books and illustrated postcards created by Paulo de Cantos, with special emphasis on his self-styled 'livros birostos', manuals with inversely opposed covers that subvert the traditional hierarchy of reading (beginning, middle and end). Even the books that, conceived during the Estado Novo, reflect colonialist, racist or sexist themes — the exhibition focuses on the analysis of their graphic design as an engine of literacy, where geometry and visual composition sought to turn the teaching of geography, history, literature or science into an exercise of playful and participatory discovery. Tuesday to Thursday and Sunday, from 10am to 7pm; Friday and Saturday, from 10am to 9pm. Guided visits (registration at the MUDE reception until 15 minutes before the visit. Price of the exhibition entrance ticket): 28 June, at 3pm — Raquel Henriques da Silva (art historian). 12 July, at 3pm — Isabel Duarte (researcher, designer). 26 July, at 3pm — Mário Moura (professor, design critic). 9 August, at 3pm — Jéssica Parente (researcher, designer). Technical sheet: General coordination: Bárbara Coutinho. Curatorship: António Silveira Gomes and Cláudia Castelo. Graphic design: Barbara Says. Exhibition design: José Albergaria.