LOOPS.EXPANDED

14 JULY – 3 OCTOBER 2026
MNAC
Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | GROUND FLOOR / MULTIPURPOSE ROOM
Rua Serpa Pinto, 4, Lisbon

For the eleventh consecutive year, MNAC – National Museum of Contemporary Art of Chiado and DuplaCena present an exhibition dedicated to the loop as a seminal form of the moving image, capable of transforming our experience of time and memory.

Bringing together historical and contemporary works, this new edition of LOOPS.EXPANDED opens on 14 July with Ah! Se a Vida Fosse Sempre Assim…, by Karim Aïnouz and Marcelo Gomes. In this looped sequence shot, the artists evoke, through a deeply intimate gesture, the feeling of an infinite longing, of a moment suspended in time.

On the same day, at 7.30 p.m., Karim Aïnouz will take part in a public conversation at the museum. A rare opportunity to meet one of today’s most acclaimed Brazilian filmmakers, who will be in Lisbon for the premiere of his latest feature film.

The exhibition continues in August and September with two formally and conceptually experimental videos, selected through the annual Open Call. The first, Rosa / Zita: Um Espaço Liminal, by Eunice Pais, uses cyclical structures to appropriate the artist’s personal narrative as a postcolonial archive shaped by inheritance, displacement and return. Maquinal, by Leonardo Gracés, is a moving-image diptych in which repetition and juxtaposition invite viewers to continually reconfigure their perception and interpretation of the images.

The exhibition closes on 3 October with La Jetée, by Chris Marker, a landmark work in the history of experimental cinema whose distinctive treatment of time, memory and narrative has profoundly influenced generations of filmmakers, artists and theorists. It will be screened from 15 September onwards.

2026 PROGRAMME

14 JULY

LOOPS.EXPANDED Opening
6–9 p.m.
Conversation with Karim Aïnouz – 7.30 p.m.

14 JULY – 9 AUGUST

Ah! Se a Vida Fosse Sempre Assim…, 4’48», 2003
Karim Aïnouz & Marcelo Gomes (BR)

11–30 AUGUST

Rosa / Zita: Um Espaço Liminal, 17’28», 2023–2025
Eunice Pais (PT)

1–13 SEPTEMBER

Maquinal, 4’08», 202
Leonardo Gracés (AR)

15 SEPTEMBER – 3 OCTOBER

La Jetée, 27′, 1963
Chris Marker (FR)

LOOPS.EXPANDED is an international network dedicated to the exhibition and research of the concept and form of the loop, founded in 2019. Operating through a decentralised model, it develops its activities through partnerships between DuplaCena in Lisbon, PROYECTOR in Madrid, OndaVideo in Pisa and WWVF in Amsterdam.

To date, the network has organised more than twenty exhibitions and screening sessions in different venues and has received approximately one thousand video submissions through its annual international Open Call.

LOOPS.EXPANDED

DIRECTOR António Câmara Manuel
CURATOR Irit Batsry
COORDINATION Ana Rita Feijão
TECHNICAL TEAM Alexandre Coelho, Elsa Bruxelas
GRAPHIC DESIGN Mario Gutiérrez Cru
COMMUNICATIONS Maria João Garcia, Francisco Nuno Rodrigues
PRODUCTION DuplaCena, MNAC

DuplaCena is funded by the Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth and Sport | Directorate-General for the Arts

PROYECTOR/Festival
September 09th – 20th, 2026

We received 110 of 40 countries submitted works is a testimony of the loop strengths and vitality. That’s the reason why we had a fascinating, but no easy (and slightly delayed) task. Fortunately enough, the submitted works enabled us having a real, beautiful and convincing discussion about purposes and meanings.

So in this list, we are sharing the works for which we have a commitment to show. Each curatorial partner will select one or more works and, depending on local conditions, the form of the exhibition could include shows or screenings in museums, galleries, theatres or outdoors screenings, symposiums and/or masterclasses. Hopefully, we will have a second list of more confirmed exhibitions.

This network aims to not to function as a traditional jury that just selects or rejects, but rather as a curatorial group whose goal is to unite and exhibit a ‘treasure trove’ around the loop. The present list is the autonomous but convergent work of programmers representing moving image projects in five countries: António da Câmara (Duplacena / Festival Temps d’Images, Lisbon – Portugal). Mario Gutiérrez Cru  (PROYECTOR, Madrid – Spain); Sandra Lischi (Ondavideo, Pisa – Italy); Tom Van Vliet (WWVF, Amsterdam – Netherlands); Alisson Avila (Cine Esquema Novo collective (Porto Alegre – Brazil) and Irit Batsry and Alisson Avila (Loops.Lisboa / Festival Temps d’Images, Lisbon – Portugal).

We selected:

ESPACIO RASTRO

13 SEP 2026.  Rui Soares Costa & André Gonçalves (PT) – Untitled for C, Rising series (2024)