MAAT looks to 2027 with Christian Marclay show and collective exhibition on artificial intelligence
The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Belém has announced two major exhibitions for 2027 as it marks its first decade. A solo show by Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay will now open in spring 2027, delayed from its original 2026 slot due to ongoing works in Gallery 1. A collective exhibition titled Energias da IA will explore the material and social costs of artificial intelligence from September 2027.
João Pinharanda, director of the Portugal-based museum, outlined the programme in an interview with news agency Lusa to mark the institution's tenth anniversary. He said the season aims to bridge established artists, emerging talent and international projects, using different artistic languages to address contemporary themes.
Marclay explores urban noise
The Marclay exhibition will examine the relationship between the city, urban questions and music. The artist lived in London and has worked between the United Kingdom and the United States, building a practice that crosses sound and image. Pinharanda explained that Marclay thinks the city and all urban questions from music and noise.
Around 15 works will be on display, including video installations, photographic series, collages and publications, many shown for the first time in Portugal. Marclay received the Golden Lion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 for his work The Clock.
Critical look at AI infrastructure
The collective exhibition Energias da IA, with the provisional English title Energies of AI, will run from 15 September 2027 to 10 April 2028. Curated by Italian art historian and Sorbonne professor Antonio Somaini, the show will address what powers artificial intelligence: electricity, water, critical minerals, computation, human labour and capital.
The museum director stressed the exhibition will not take a didactic approach. "It's not artificial intelligence thought of as a didactic thing or going around seeing how the little machines are made," Pinharanda told Lusa. "These are really artists who work with that technology and who think about this theme critically."
Confirmed international artists include:
• Hito Steyerl, with the installation Mechanical Kurds (2025)
• Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, presenting a new project titled Metabolic Machines (2026)
• Trevor Paglen, with Hypnosis (2026)
• Grégory Chatonsky, with Depletion (2026)
• Fabien Giraud, showing the first iteration of The Feral (2035–3035)
The exhibition will also feature works by Portuguese artists, yet to be announced.
Museum widens geographic reach
Pinharanda said the museum intends to bring more artists from Central Europe, particularly Poland and the Czech Republic, to Lisbon. "We have presented many English, Swiss, French and there hasn't been anything linked to that region yet," he observed. The programme between 2027 and 2028 will also include more projects by Afrodescendant artists.
South American representation will remain a programming focus. The museum has previously exhibited Brazilian artists Ernesto Neto and Jonathas de Andrade, and presented collections of Brazilian contemporary art.
On whether the museum would priorities Lusophone artists, Pinharanda told Lusa that selections must stem "above all from the quality and interest of the works, and not from their capacity to illustrate a certain identity or theme".
A decade in numbers
The MAAT complex comprises the contemporary building designed by British architect Amanda Levete's studio AL_A, the former Central Tejo power station and a connecting garden along the Tagus riverfront. Its programming intersects art, architecture and technology, drawing on the industrial heritage of the power station and its ecological setting.
More than 3 million visitors and over 1,000 artists have passed through its doors since 2016. The museum is marking its anniversary through Monday with guided tours, workshops, an opera performance and a solidarity market. Three new exhibitions are currently on display: Venus – Valentino Garavani through the eyes of Joana Vasconcelos, New Age by João Pimenta Gomes, and a retrospective of the museum's editorial production.
