Arte, tecnologia e cosmologias contemporâneas em diálogo na nova programação da Escola das Artes
Artists, creative technologists, curators, writers and thinkers come together to contribute across multiple thematic fields: from the spiritual and the mythical to socio-technological infrastructures and (de)colonial logics, projecting speculative futures.
Between February and May 2026, the School of Arts of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa presents “Art + Tech x Cosmos =”, a programme comprising conferences, concerts, exhibitions and performances.
The opening conference takes place on 19 February with Joasia Krysa, the programme’s curator, in conversation with digital art curators Val Ravaglia and Pita Arreola.
Curated by Joasia Krysa with Nuno Crespo, Daniel Ribas and José Alberto Gomes, “Art + Tech x Cosmos =” explores how art and technology are interconnected, how creative practices respond to the growing complexity of the world, and how diverse histories and futures converge to generate new forms. “As the title suggests, the programme adopts a cosmological approach, engaging with non-Western technological thinking and shared multidimensional realities,” note the curators.
“‘Art + Tech x Cosmos =’ emerges from the School of Arts’ engagement with experimental artistic practices, within which dialogues and relationships are forged between research, artistic creation and contemporary social and cultural challenges,” states Nuno Crespo, curator and Director of the School of Arts of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
Art + Tech x Cosmos = | Performances, Conferences, Concerts
The programme includes two performances. The first takes place on 26 February at 6:30 pm. Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley presents an immersive and participatory performance that intersects video game, animation, sound and fictional narrative. Through interactive digital technologies, the artist creates a space for critical confrontation and reflection on identity, power and systemic oppression. On 8 April, Günseli Yalcinkaya presents a hybrid reflection between critical thought and artistic practice, bringing together cultural research, speculative fiction and performance. In a format that challenges the boundaries between academic lecture and performative event, the artist draws on contemporary narratives to question technology, power and collective imagination, inviting the audience to an experience that is simultaneously intellectual and sensory.
The conference programme of “Art + Tech x Cosmos =” brings together leading voices at the intersection of art, technology and critical thought. Throughout the cycle, Legacy Russell, Diana Policarpo, Tabita Rezaire, the collective Keiken (represented by Hana E. Amori) and João Melo propose reflections that traverse identity, power, spirituality, memory, digital ecologies and speculative futures, exploring artistic and research practices that question contemporary technological and cultural infrastructures. The programme concludes with a joint conference by Joasia Krysa and Libby Heaney, bringing together curatorial and artistic perspectives on art, science and technology, and inviting reflection on emerging practices, research and the imagination of possible futures.
The new season of the Dashed Concerts runs until May 2026. The next concert is scheduled for 5 March with Lime68k. Luca Argel (16 April), João Pimenta Gomes (30 April) and Nuno Loureiro (14 May) are also confirmed.
Until the end of the first semester of 2026, the School of Arts presents two new exhibitions integrated into the programme: one by Teatro Praga, opening in March, and one by Rodrigo Cass, in May.
From 29 June to 3 July, the eighth edition of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema will take place, this year in association with the XVI Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture. The highlighted theme will be “Disobedience” as both artistic practice and concept, exploring its multiple forms, dynamics and limits.
All events will take place at the Católica Art Center, a member of the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network. The Católica Art Center includes the Exhibition Room; the Ilídio Pinho Auditorium, which hosts weekly film screenings and artist talks; and the Blackbox, primarily dedicated to the performing arts.
More information and the full programme available here:
Art + Tech x Cosmos =
Concerts, conferences, exhibitions and performances
JOASIA KRYSA
Joasia Krysa is a curator and Professor of Exhibition Research at the Liverpool School of Art and Design, with an adjunct role at Liverpool Biennial. She was Chief Curator of the 2nd Helsinki Biennial (2023) and co-curator of the 9th Liverpool Biennial (2016) and DOCUMENTA 13 (2012). Working at the intersection of art and technology, her curatorial projects have been presented at major international institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), KANAL Centre Pompidou (Brussels), ZKM Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe), Helsinki Art Museum and Tate Modern (London). Her recent publications include Curating Intelligences: Reader on AI and Future Curating (London Open Humanities Press, 2025), Helsinki Biennial: New Directions May Emerge (Helsinki Art Museum, 2023), a chapter in the Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of New Media Art (London, 2025), and the forthcoming The Routledge Companion to Art and Technology (London/New York, 2027).
PITA ARREOLA
Pita Arreola is Programme Director at arebyte Digital Art Centre in London and co-founder of Off Site Project, a curatorial platform dedicated to supporting emerging new media talent. Since 2017, she has worked with over 200 artists worldwide in the development of experimental projects that critically explore the social impact of emerging technologies. From 2021 to 2024, she was Digital Art Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is also co-editor of Digital Art: 1960s–Now (V&A, Thames & Hudson, 2024), a publication exploring the histories behind digital art.
VAL RAVAGLIA
Val Ravaglia is International Art Curator at Tate Modern, London. She has a particular interest in transdisciplinary curatorial practices and recently curated Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet (2024–25), highlighting art inspired by scientific innovation from the 1950s to the early 1990s; the exhibition is currently on view at OGR, Turin, until 10 May 2026. Val contributed to the complete rehang of Tate Modern’s displays in preparation for the museum’s expansion in June 2016. She was Assistant Curator of the 2017 Turbine Hall Commission by SUPERFLEX and of the Nam June Paik retrospective at Tate Modern in 2019, co-curated the free exhibition A Year in Art: Australia 1992 (2021–23), and led the Tate touring exhibition The Dynamic Eye: Beyond Op and Kinetic Art in its Porto (2023) and Istanbul (2024) iterations. Her next exhibition is a solo show by Julio Le Parc, opening at Tate Modern on 11 June 2026.