Starting this October, Católica hosts the inaugural edition of the Catholic Universities Contemporary Art Triennial (ArtCut), an international initiative organized by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education. General-commissioned by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça and chief-curated by Nuno Crespo, the Triennial brings together over one hundred artists and seven universities across three continents, underscoring the vital role of academic institutions as active cultural workshops committed to humanization.
Grounded in the reflections of the Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, which highlights the critical need to preserve human relationality against the depersonalizing currents of artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems, the Triennial is anchored in the overarching theme of “Exercises in Empathy.” Empathy is approached here not as a rhetorical gesture, but as an essential ethical posture: the patient exercise of stepping into another’s perspective, suspending immediate judgment, and recognizing the other in their irreducible alterity. Through this lens, the exhibition acts as a philosophical and sensory school, asserting that the paradoxical nature of artistic work, poised between tangible form and transcendent meaning, offers an unmatched terrain to cultivate mutual understanding and counter contemporary polarization.
The Lisbon edition explores these tensions through the subtheme “Homecoming,” curated by Filipa Oliveira, Fr. João Sarmento, S.J., and Nuno Crespo. The exhibition examines the universal longing for return, framing home not merely as physical shelter or domestic architecture, but as an interior geography and an unstable emotional realm shaped by displacement, memory, loss, and imagination.
This dialogue is articulated across three distinct cultural venues in the city. At the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery, located in Católica’s main building, the works on view through December 12, 2026 examine the physical and architectural syntax of living spaces as the primary condition for intimacy. At Brotéria, running until November 14, 2026, the focus turns to shared origin and collective belonging, probing humanity’s return to Nature as an original, common dwelling. Meanwhile, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) and the Millennium bcp Gallery, open until January 24, 2027, the presentation considers home as a psychosomatic space, confronting memory, ruined architectures, and traces of displacement where personal and historical traumas meet. Featuring major contributions from artists including Helena Almeida, Carlos Bunga, Julião Sarmento, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Mona Hatoum, the Triennial invites the broader public into an immersive, shared practice of ethical contemplation and hospitality.
