The historical processes that determine our contemporary museums — capitalism and colonialism, the international art market and globalisation — are inevitably hybrid and tainted, and institutions today must rethink the sensitivities of their relations and structures. Heteteroclite refers what is eccentric, irregular, odd, which is to say that a heteroclitic archive is one built on an aesthetic of the “exotic” and the “primitive”. Heteroclite is a slogan for imagining the future.

The exhibition fills the entire first floor and the installation of the pieces is deliberately experimental, seeking to flow between the “storage” and the gallery rooms in a way that underlines the “transit” and “time” of the distinct objects collected by José de Guimarães. Within the exhibition space, Heteroclite: 1128 objects is an artistic contemplation of the relations between objects, people, ideas and structures, emphasising the “disagreement” or “dissent” between things, the struggle between different identities that cannibalizes all elements drawn into it.

The exhibition is curated by Marta Mestre, artistic director of the CIAJG archive. Its architecture by André Tavares and Ivo Poças Martins draws

on the paradox of displaying all 1128 objects in the collection alongside a selection of works by artists, spread throughout the exhibition, as well as a solo show by the Spanish-Brazilian artist Sara Ramo.

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