Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves — Attraction in Porto

If you’re not Portuguese I simply don’t think that this museum has much to offer you.

Most of the works are provided without context or explanation, something which I suspect is a considered and deliberate choice. While I respect the position the reality is that the museum begins with and feels somewhat defined by art about the ‘74 toppling of the dictatorship. While I’m familiar with the history my lack of Portuguese and lack of personal connection with that history made the art difficult to engage with. A gap that the museum felt committed not to bridge. If I take what the museum presented me with at face value I would conclude, as it seems many other visitors did, that the revolution was an incomprehensible and fairly bland affair. I doubt that was the sentiment of the artists.

The rest of the museum feels to suffer from a similar lethargy. Much of the art is old and feels to be more of historical interest than in dialogue with current culture. Indeed the presentations seemed dominated by sexually explicit art that while boundary pushing for its time seemed fairly pointless. Its male dominated perspective also made it feel out of touch.

A statue I encountered of a nun lifting her habit to reveal her unshaven vagina seems to capture the spirit of the collection. The collision of the holy with the profane seemed obvious and even childishly blunt in 2024. For a country in which Catholicism was so deeply linked with the state through the dictatorship the only question that exhibit raised in me was, “is that truly all that you have to say?”

It’s possible that a Portuguese visitor would have far more to connect with but, as an outsider, I felt this museum is really lacking a voice and the experience...

This is actually a really lovely art museum and very beautiful gardens including sculptures outside which are integrated into the garden. But there are many problems with it. For a steep entry fee (compared to other galleries we've been to) of 24 euro the staff should be super helpful from the outset to ensure you make the most of your (expensive) visit - including clearly explaining the layout of the museum and grounds because the signage is unclear or non existent. We were there over 3 hours and still only managed to find the new wing of the art museum just 15 minutes before the museum + park closed. This was a massive disappointment given the new wing is quite large and filled with (what we hurriedly saw) great modern art. The entry to the new wing is currently a temporary one through an almost hidden external door (internal door not available due to new installation underway, or if it was available it wasn't signposted). Also the art deco villa on the grounds is closed - the museum should really discount overall entry due to a key feature being inaccessible. Staff (ample) throughout the museum and grounds were keen to ask for your ticket to be shown but not helpful beyond this. This is a 3 star review for the content of this establishment but minus 2 stars for quite inadequate staff support and guidance. If you are going here, give yourself a good 3 hours to make...

This is one of my favourite places to visit in Porto, I go there there everytime I'm in town, but yesterday I was very disappointed. First they ask me if I was resident in Portugal, when I said no (even though I'm Portuguese), they said they had to charge me 2 Euros more for the ticket. After buying the ticket for the museum and garden I was stopped by the entrance to the tree walk, apparently the ticket to the garden does not include this new installation but no one informed me at the desk, and so isn't the new Cinema house. I would assume that at least the tree path would be part of the garden! I'm honestly embarrassed for my country, trying to exploit the tourist any chance they have. I'd like to know the arguments from the museum for these actions. It's a shame! Totally overpriced! Another little incident is that walking into the museum exhibition at 5.15pm, no one informed me that the museum was closing one hour earlier then in the summer (now closing at 6pm). I was just starting to see the Siza Vieira exhibition, which was the main reason for my visit, when the lady told me they were closing in 4 min! Of course I didn't see most of it and was very disappointed. It would have been nice to be informed at the entrance so I could have planned my visit better. Sometimes saving the best for last doesn't pay off!! I'm...