Feedback is a cycle of sessions commenting on the exhibitions of visual arts at Culturgest, which are based on slightly unusual premises. Not only are the guest speakers not necessarily specialists in contemporary art, but also what they are asked to do does not require them to decode the mysteries contained within the exhibitions or even to answer all of the questions that they raise. Instead, the guests are given carte blanche to choose what to touch upon in their commentaries: it may be just a work, a room, a theme or a personal intuition – there are no subjects that are less important, just as there are no right answers. There are, however, connections that it is interesting to clarify and others that may be suggested to us based on the experiences that these singular spectators and commentators had with the works to be found here. 

To inaugurate this cycle, we have invited Isabel Lucas and João Gomes da Silva to give us their feedbacks on the exhibition of Gabriela Albergaria. Isabel Lucas is a journalist and literary critic, who writes regularly in the Público newspaper and collaborates with various other publications, especially in the areas of culture and travel. She divides her time between Lisbon and New York and is the author, among other books, of Viagem ao sonho americano (Journey to the American Dream), a tour of America based on literature.

João Gomes da Silva is a landscape artist, who was an assistant professor in Évora and is currently a visiting professor at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Mendrisio and Harvard. Together with Inês Norton, he founded the Global Arquitectura Paisagista studio, and his work has won various international prizes, the last of which, the Piranesi Award, was given to his project for Lisbon’s Castelo de São Jorge, which he developed in partnership with Luís Carrilho da Graça in 2010.