In life and in work Lourdes Castro and Manuel Zimbro were companions and collaborators for more than three decades. This exhibition, organized by Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, will for the first time, bring together their works from an anthological perspective. Lourdes Castro (Madeira, 1930) developed her work as a research on the shadow of flowers, people and objects. In the late 1950s, the artist left Portugal for Paris, where, together with René Bertholo, she founded Group KWY, an acronym utilising the letters that did not exist in the Portuguese alphabet. The group was joined by other Portuguese and foreign arrivals to Paris, such as João Vieira, José Escada, Gonçalo Duarte, Christo and Jan Voss. The low budget magazine published by the group became a reference in the Parisian art scene, featuring collaborations by numerous other artists, namely Raymond Hains or François Dufrêne. Lourdes Castro and the other Portuguese artists in the group launched what could now be considered as a second avant-garde in the history of twentieth century Portuguese art, following what had been a first modernist avant-garde.
Manuel Zimbro (Lisbon, 1944 – Madeira, 2003) left for Paris in the 1960s, where he worked as René Bertholo’s assistant. In several exhibitions he presented projects such as “Torrões de terra [Clods of Earth]” and “História Secreta da Aviação [The Secret History of Aviation]”. Aside from those projects, and from his collaborations with Lourdes Castro, this exhibition will feature several other works of his for the first time.

Curator: João Fernandes
Production: Fundação de Serralves

5 and 6 of June, 40 hours non-stop