The Shortlist. November in Lisbon
November arrives in Lisbon with lower light and longer evenings, and the city fills them generously. Stages from four continents, three hundred artists opening their doors at once, an exhibition about earth, and dinners where art sets the table. These are the five we have chosen.
Culture. Alkantara Festival
For seventeen days, Lisbon becomes a crossroads for choreographers and theatre makers from Rwanda, Lebanon, Mozambique, Korea and Brazil. The festival asks, in its own words, what a festival has to do with this world, and every evening offers a different answer. Begin with Ali Chahrour’s Quando Vi o Mar, and let the rest of the programme find you.
Venues across Lisbon · 13 to 29 November
Art. Lisbon Art Weekend
The eighth edition brings more than three hundred artists into view at once, across galleries, independent spaces and institutions from MAAT to CAM Gulbenkian. Seventy-four events in four days, and the entire programme is free. Keep the afternoons open and follow your curiosity from one door to the next.
Across Lisbon · 5 to 8 November
Event. Conjugação Terra
Curator Manuela Moog gathers three Brazilian artists around the earth itself. Duhigó paints the memory of her people from the Alto Rio Negro, Carla Santana reads the layers kept in soil, and Marina Schroeder listens to matter through touch. On 12 November, Fernando Mota plays instruments built from what he gathers in nature. On 14 November, Chef Francisco Tomaz turns the exhibition into a tasting walk from root to fruit. Seats are few.
NUMA.SALA · 12 and 14 November
Architecture. Paraíso, hoje.
Portugal’s representation at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale comes home to Belém. Through an interactive installation and an atlas of images and texts, the curators use paradise to think about how we inhabit, transform and imagine the Portuguese landscape. Go on the opening night, when Jorge Queijo performs the soundscape he composed for it.
MAC/CCB · opening 4 November, on view 5 November to 3 January
Gastronomy. First Editions à mesa
Three dinners built around works by finalists of the Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize, where the art decides the venue, the menu and even what you wear. Forbidden Feast at DAM in Marvila. Beautiful Resistance at Cícero in Chiado. Surface Tension in the heart of the city. Proceeds support expressive arts programmes for children in Portugal.
Sovereign Art Foundation · 6, 16 and 20 November
Lisbon, at its most generous.