iMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture CentreBelém
Frida Orupabo: Cloud of Confusion
This exhibition has ended.
Frida Orupabo's first solo show in Portugal mines her Instagram image archive of colonial records, ethnographic photos, family portraits and pop icons to probe intimacy and violence.
Museum websiteMore in Lisbon
Orupabo started saving pictures from the internet while working at a support centre for victims of human trafficking and sex workers. From 2013 to 2016 she posted them, cut up and looped, to an Instagram account, @nemiepeba, that Arthur Jafa called "relentless" and "incandescent". The show's title comes from one of those posts, words floating in it like alphabet soup.
Her first solo show in Portugal turns that feed into a walk: one straight route of eight sections through Level -1, with images from colonial archives, cinema, television and motherhood broken up by her photo-collages, sculptures and video. You do the scrolling with your feet, and each cut only lands when you're standing in front of it. At the far end, a Reading and Listening Room holds books and publications tied to her references.
The material is about race, violence and colonial history, so give it time. It's on the €15 museum ticket and closes 1 November.
Look for
The Reading and Listening Room
Look for it at the far end of the route: a room where you can sit with the books and publications behind Orupabo's work, with periodic events.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want a light afternoon: colonial archives and images of violence run through the whole route.
Also at MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
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iPedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”
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iExhibiting, Publishing: MAAT in Print (2016–2026)
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Nearby
Image credits
8
- MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture CentreHerbert wie, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Life is the Game – An immersive experience by Paulo FurtadoMAAT, 2026
- Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”Photo: João Ferrand, courtesy of the artist
- Exhibiting, Publishing: MAAT in Print (2016–2026)Photograph: Fábio Cunha, courtesy of EDP Foundation
- Museu Nacional de ArqueologiaJose Luis Filpo Cabana, CC BY 3.0
- Museu de MarinhaNan Palmero, CC BY 2.0
- Museu Nacional dos CochesBosc d'Anjou / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and TechnologyStefan Bethke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0