There’s been a buzz surrounding Comporta, the fashionable beachside destination just one hour's drive from Lisbon, with celebrity vacationers and second-home seekers snapping up fishermen’s huts. Yes, several real estate projects are underway, and a string of new restaurants and beach clubs have set up shop here, but this is a landscape still dominated by pines, rice fields, pristine beaches, and storks nesting atop electricity poles. Low-slung cabanas are hidden amongst nature, and the nearby villages of Melides and Alcácer do Sal are charmingly quaint and quiet – worlds away from other voguish European summer destinations like Saint Tropez or Ibiza. ‘It has this laid-back quality of almost feeling empty,’ says Alexandre Gabriel, a partner at Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel. Still, tranquil Comporta is where the Brazilian powerhouse gallery has chosen to host its summer exhibition, currently in its third edition.

Each year, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel invites different galleries to collaborate on its Comporta summer exhibition. This time around, Mexico’s kurimanzutto has brought pieces by Leonor Antunes, Nairy Baghramian, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Gabriel Orozco, Damián Ortega, Wilfredo Prieto, Sofía Táboas and Haegue Yang. These are in conversation with a selection from Fortes’ own roster: Adriana Varejão, Anderson Borba, Sergej Jensen, Márcia Falcão, Ernesto Neto, Mauro Restiffe, Marina Rheingantz, Erika Verzutti, and Luiz Zerbini as well as the guest artist Álvaro Lapa.

The exhibition unfolds in two acts, the first of which opened early July and was centered on perceptions of the natural world and the relationship between organic and constructed spaces. The second act, which opens August 5, focuses on representations of bodily forms and cognitive processes. ‘The idea was to put these different artworks together in ways that allowed new readings,’ says José Kuri, the cofounder of kurimanzutto.

Housed in a former rice barn, the exhibition space is run by Fundação Herdade da Comporta, a not-for-profit focused on the sustainable development of the local community. With projects like this, it hopes to show both visitors and locals that the region has more than just beaches to offer. ‘It’s not about putting some artworks on a plane and bringing them over, it’s a project born from within,’ says Kuri.

Launched in 2021, the Comporta summer show was the brainchild of Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel’s international director, Maria Ana Pimenta. After a lifetime of living abroad, she had recently returned to her native – albeit radically changed – Portugal, opening the gallery’s first international office in Lisbon. Like other pop-ups staged during the pandemic, the exhibition was initially conceived as a response to the restrictions that had halted the global art calendar. But rather than only running for the course of these restrictions, the project took root. With Comporta’s gradual emergence as a coveted summer destination, the exhibition became a mainstay. ‘It was a very opportune moment. We didn’t set out looking for this audience, we arrived before it in some ways,’ says Gabriel. At this year’s vernissage, a who’s who of the Portuguese art world mingled with British, French, Brazilian, and American vacationers as well as those who had come from Lisbon and further afield just for the event. ‘We can now look back and see how important it was to have planted this seed here,’ says Gabriel.

The relationship between the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America obviously runs deep, and in terms of cultural exchange, Lisbon and Madrid have always been important hubs. ‘Arco fair has been historically very significant for us, and our artists have had many exhibitions in Lisbon,’ says Gabriel, mentioning an upcoming show that will juxtapose works by the Brazilian Adriana Varejão and Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego at the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian. Add to that an ever-growing number of affluent Brazilians, as well as other internationals, having relocated to Portugal in recent years and the country seems riper than ever for a thriving, multicultural art scene and market to emerge.

‘Portugal is a natural axis for us,’ says collector and Latin American art ambassador Frances Reynolds, who sits at the board of institutions including the Museu de Arte de São Paulo and Tate Modern in London. ‘Not only is [Lisbon] a lovely city, but it’s so close to everywhere, if you think about it,’ she says. Beyond calling the city her new home, Reynolds also has plans to bring Inclusartiz, the not-for-profit art institute she helms in Rio de Janeiro, to this side of the Atlantic. With a focus in promoting cultural exchange, Inclusartiz runs a series of exhibitions, residencies, and educational programs that connects Brazilian and international artists, curators, and researchers. While plans for the institute’s Portuguese branch are being formalized, Reynolds sees her role in the country as a pied piper of sorts, bringing people together and fostering transatlantic partnerships. ‘What Fortes has been doing with this summer show is wonderful, it’s a window for European audiences into what’s happening in Latin America,’ says Reynolds. ‘But there’s a lot more to be done here in terms of opening up this cultural corridor, not only with Brazil but also the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa, and it must involve a mix of visual arts, music, literature.’

In small Portuguese towns, a diverse cultural offering can play a defining role in the social fabric of a place. It can reenergize dwindling local communities and may even transform the seasonal visitor economy to a more year-round affair. So far, however, with pressure and prices mounting on already strained Lisbon and Porto, not enough investment is being made outside city boundaries. ‘I think holding an exhibition in Comporta is quite pioneering. It cannot be compared to projects in the Hamptons or in the south of France because those places already exist; Comporta is in the making,’ says Matteo Consonni of Lisbon’s Madragoa gallery. Consonni, who collaborated on last year’s edition of the Comporta show, has witnessed Lisbon’s own transformation in the eight years he’s been there. ‘There’s definitely a bigger public for contemporary art today,’ he says, ‘but it’s still one composed of bubbles. Our job is to create points of aggregation.’ He also sees that what’s happening in Comporta can ripple in the capital, especially in the summer months when many establishments close and Lisbon caters mostly to tourism; ‘it’s one more reason for me to keep the gallery open during the period,’ says Consonni.

No one’s under the illusion that Lisbon – let alone Comporta – will become an art epicenter overnight. Compared to other European hubs, galleries are scant, and exhibitions few and far between, but there’s a palpable excitement for what the next few years may bring to the scene. For the San Francisco-based collector and art advisor Sabrina Buell, coming to Lisbon was a lifestyle decision; she and her surf-loving family now spend half of the year here. While there are no plans of bringing her business across the pond, she has been noticing how the influx of wealthy foreigners into the country, many lured in by the Golden Visa scheme, holds lots of collecting potential. ‘A lot of us who came here don’t have day jobs in town so we have lots of time to engage with art, and there isn’t enough of it,’ she says. ‘If you are a gallery or an artist with a studio in Portugal, you aren’t competing for people’s time as much.’

Back in Comporta, amidst the serenity of the town square, a group of holidaymakers can be seen making their way into the exhibition after a day spent on the beach – no one seems to be in any rush at all.

Part II of the summer exhibition in Comporta by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel and kurimanzutto runs August 5 to August 31, 2023 at Casa da Cultura, Comporta.

Gaia Lutz is the Lisbon correspondent for Monocle Magazine. She is a freelance journalist, writer, and podcast producer.

Published on August 4, 2023.

Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1. Luiz Zerbini, Musa miraculosa (detail), 2023. Photograph by Eduardo Ortega, courtesy of the artist and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro. 2. Mauro Restiffe, 2020 (detail), 2020. Photograph by Eduardo Ortega, courtesy of the artist and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro. 3. Abraham Cruzvillegas, Otras rutas 13 (detail), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. 4. Installation view of the part II of the summer exhibition in Comporta by Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, 2023, Casa da Cultura, Comporta. Courtesy of Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel and kurimanzutto.