"Today I felt it was not enough - Introversions and artistic utopias after April 25th" is the title of the group exhibition that brings together artists and works that marked the period after the founding moment of democracy in Portugal, evoking the "spirit" of that historical landmark, said today the museum's director, João Pinharanda.

During a press visit to the four new exhibitions, João Pinharanda and the deputy director, Sérgio Mah, highlighted the importance of the group exhibition that brings together works by more than 40 artists from different generations, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.

"The selection of works reveals the effects of the revolution on artistic creation. It caused an expansion of the imagination and the emergence of new artists, many women established themselves in this area", highlighted Sérgio Mah during the visit, pointing out that authors are represented who had already started their careers before April 25th, many in exile, up to those who emerged in the post-revolutionary period.

Gabriel Abrantes, Helena Almeida, Ana Hatherly, Leonor Antunes, Eduardo Batarda, Maria Beatriz, Sara Bichão, Inês Botelho, Joaquim Bravo, Carlos Bunga, Fernando Calhau, Alberto Carneiro, Pedro Casqueiro, Lourdes Castro, Rosa Carvalho, Rui Chafes, António Dacosta, Armanda Duarte, José Escada, Carla Filipe, Horácio Frutuoso, Ana Jotta and Álvaro Lapa are some of the artists represented, with works that include painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, video and installation.

The title quotes a verse from a famous song by musician Sérgio Godinho "Com um brilhozinho nos olhos" (1981), which leads the visitor to "multiple meanings", according to the curators, "transferring the expression of unsatisfied desire from the personal sphere to the collective, but then returning to the individual aspect of creation".

In the course of the exhibition presented at Central Tejo, works from the EDP Foundation collection and also from private collectors and institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the PLMJ Foundation and the Luso-American Development Foundation appear.

The works reveal the reflection of the times of political and social change that gave rise to particular and "autonomous artistic paths in relation to the collective utopias opened up by the revolution", in which the artists "revealed narcissistic impulses, anxieties, emotions, personal fantasies, and also new ways of experimenting with materials and breaking with limits", namely through humour.

Alongside this exhibition, the historic space of the former power station was used to present "Energies. Perpetual movement: The National Museum of Archaeology visits MAAT", an unprecedented partnership that is part of the celebration program for the 130th anniversary of the MNA.

At a time when the museum is closed for remodelling under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the director of the MNA, António Carvalho, welcomed the good reception of the initiative, which resulted in the exhibition - between the Boiler Room and the Ash Room - of a dialogue involving more than 150 pieces from the museum and the EDP Foundation's Energy Heritage Collection.

The exhibition displays objects invented by humanity, from prehistory to the industrial period, seeking to master natural energy sources such as the sun, water, wind and fire to meet their survival needs.

Among the pieces in the MNA collection are four panels from the Ulysses Mosaic of Santa Vitória do Ameixial, alluding to the winds and seasons of the year, presented publicly for the first time after several restoration works at the Conímbriga National Museum, according to the curators João Pimenta and Patrícia Batista.

Other examples include spearheads, cutting stones, a sundial, dated from 1775 - a complex scientific tool that was intended for geography and gnomonics classes at the then Real Casa Pia de Lisboa -, while from the EDP Foundation's collection, the curators Rosa Goy and Ivone Maio highlighted the valve key, a work tool used at Central Tejo between 1908 and 1972, and a sophisticated technological mechanism known as a submarine, which allows the connection and passage of two electrical cables underground.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, António Carvalho stressed that, despite the MNA being closed for works, "it remains open for various initiatives also outside the doors", and that this one, in particular, aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the April 25th revolution.

Curated by Sérgio Mah, the exhibition "Three Flies, 2012-2024", by André Maranha, Francisco Tropa, Jorge Queiroz and Pedro Morais, is also inaugurated, a work conceived by four artists who "have long shared personal and creative complicities".

The project includes a collective installation that includes sculptures, paintings, motors, objects, mirrors, light, water and performative actions, conceived as a device for events, or miniature theatre, in a construction strongly inspired by "Impressions d'Afrique", by the French writer Raymond Roussel (1877--1933), a novel published in 1910 that influenced the history of art.

In addition to the installation, the project includes the altarpiece of the Bonecos de Santo Aleixo, "a relic of a popular Alentejo puppet theatre", which uses "figures with identical faces and wide eyes, animated in a rudimentary way by a rod fixed to the head, which embody the figures necessary for the representation of oral tradition texts inspired by biblical narratives where comic improvisations and burlesque asides fit in, intended to establish a direct and duplicated relationship with the audience, based on laughter and catharsis", according to the curatorship.

Related to the activity of Central Tejo, MAAT also presents "Light everywhere II: The first Central Tejo", built on the landfill in front of Rua da Praia da Junqueira by the Companhias Reunidas Gás e Eletricidade (CRGE), to respond to the growing demand for electricity in the city of Lisbon.

This station was scheduled to operate for a period of six years (1908--1914), but the situation of the Great War ended up extending its operation until 1921.

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