If the exhibition in Paris is based on plasters from the ENSBAP and the Louvre, the Gulbenkian Museum features a selection from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon, aiming, on the one hand, to celebrate historical collections of plaster replicas of sculptures conserved in art schools and, on the other, to question the relevance of the mould/modelling technique in contemporary artistic practices.

The exhibition presents these historical collections alongside a set of works by 16 national and international contemporary artists: David Bestué, Christine Borland, Steven Claydon, Michael Dean, Asta Gröting, Simon Fujiwara, Oliver Laric, Juamana Manna, Jean-Luc Moulène, Charlotte Moth, Francisco Tropa, Xavier Veilhan, Marion Verboom, Daphne Wright, Heimo Zobernig and Aleksandra Domanović. Through dialogue and confrontation, a contemporary perspective is offered on the pedagogical function and contribution of these European plaster collections to visual culture and to concepts such as reproduction, variation, seriality, scale and matter.

This exhibition makes available to the public historical collections that have aroused growing interest among museums, researchers, universities and contemporary artists.

Head curator: Penelope Curtis
Curatorial team: Penelope Curtis, Rita Fabiana, Thierry Leviez, Armelle Pradalier
Exhibition organised and co-produced by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, in collaboration with the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon.