I don’t do * – Exhibition of the year 2025

Exhibition of the year 2025
I don’t do *

ESAD.CR’s finalists

EXHIBITION
4TH TO 7TH OF JUNE, 2025
OPENING: JUNE 4TH, 5PM
SCHEDULE FROM 5TH TO 7TH OF JUNE: 10AM – 10PM
ESAD.CR

*“I Don’t Do ” is the title of the graduation exhibition of a generation unafraid to declare what it is not.

At a time when everything demands quick definitions, visible stances, and solid discourse, we choose openness, doubt, and provocation. The empty space in the title is no mistake: it’s a blank to be filled in. An open sentence that adapts and transforms according to the voice that uses it. A mutable structure that invites affirmation or refusal: “I don’t give a damn.” “I don’t belong.” “I don’t have a clue.” “I don’t do wars.” “I don’t do shit.” Each possibility is valid and part of the constellation of discourses this exhibition welcomes — be it critique, playfulness, manifesto, resistance, or honest acknowledgment.

As a School of Arts and Design, we often face stereotypes that associate us with doing nothing. We respond with irony, freedom, and creativity. The asterisk in the title “I Don’t Do *” is an open space for interpretation and individual identity. Each person fills it in with what defines them — or what they refuse to be.

More than a linguistic game, “I Don’t Do *” reflects the essence of the artistic and academic process: working without certainties, failing, experimenting, building meaning along the way. Here, being lost is an opportunity. We cultivate critical thinking and capabilities that go beyond definitive answers. Each work is a statement of intent, a social or existential stance, an awareness of the creator’s role in society — of what they choose to question, reject, or transform.

“No” is also an affirmative word. It is resistance. It is letting go of what no longer speaks to us. It is refusing passivity in the face of political correctness. We do what we feel, not what we should. We do a lot, we want change — but what is it we don’t do? What doesn’t represent us?

From 4 to 7 June, this space gathers encounters. People and ideas fill the rooms, to see what is being done and what has been done. The work on display symbolises the final milestone for these students whose cycle comes to a close. It celebrates their academic journey, countering the pressure for immediate results with the emancipation of the intangible and the act of listening to one another.

At the end — which is always a new beginning — one must make choices and set boundaries. We look ahead with more questions than answers, but along the way we’ve learned not only what we want to affirm, but also what we don’t care for in the world we’re now shaping with our hands.

“I Don’t Do” is, ultimately, the space where each one can be. Or not be. And that, in itself, is already doing a lot.

TECHNICAL FILE OF THE EXHIBITION I DON’T DO

Direction ESAD.CR
Cláudia Pernencar (Dean), Nuno Fragata, Sílvia Pinto

General Coordination Exhibition
Carla Cardoso, Lígia Afonso

Editorial Coordination Catalogue
Miguel Macedo, Carla Cardoso, Lígia Afonso

Curators (professors) & assistant curators (students)
Short Cycles
AVM — Ana Carrasco, Miguel Bastos
DMD — João Vinagre
PDD3D — Francisco Fernandes

Undergraduate Programmes
AP — Rui Horta Pereira, Paulo Quintas and Marta Soares, with Lara Domingues
DE — Célia Gomes, with Laís Paulo, Leonor Barbosa
DGM — António Silveira Gomes, Elga Ferreira, Marco Correia, with Madalena Serpa e Maria Antunes
DI — Luís Pessanha, with João Neto
DPCV — David Camocho, with Margarida Vieira Godinho
PPC — Lígia Afonso, with Fábio Costa, Rita Baleia
SI — Isabel Aboim, Nuno Monteiro, Maria Mire, with David Silva, Carolina Monteiro
T — Guilherme Mendonça, with Joana Bolinhas

Master Programmes
MAP — Isabel Baraona, Miguel Ferrão, with Gonçalo Chenk
MASI — Diogo Saldanha, with Carolina Soares, João Corvo
MDG — João Maio Pinto, Luísa Barreto
MDP — Fernando Brízio, with Maria Bento
MDSBE — Elga Ferreira
MGC — Carla Cardoso

Exhibition & Catalogue Programming, Production & Curatorial Texts
2nd Year PPC 2023/2024
Ana Rocha, Carolina Morais, Carlos Cordeiro, Francisca Caridade, Inês Dias, Katarzyna Bilka, Leonor Dias, Leonor Lima, Maria Jesus, Maria Veloso, Matilde Maia, Sabrina Garcia, Sara Silva, Violeta Gregório

Tutoring
Carla Cardoso, Lígia Afonso, CU Project of Artistic and Cultural Programming and Production II

Exhibition Graphic Design
Carmen Popovici, Ju Belo, Manu Clara — 3rd year DGM

Tutoring
António Silveira Gomes, João Maio Pinto, Marco Correia

Editorial Design
Feliciano André Amador Costa

Tutoring
Miguel Macedo

Support to the Exhibition Assembling, Communication Support & Photography
Communication and Events Organisation Office: Andreia Sil, Raquel Marques, Paulo Costa, Sérgio Dantas
Audiovisual Workshop: Sérgio Veloso
Digital Workshop: Andreia Vasconcelos, Ricardo Jesus, Vanessa Ferreira
Photography Workshop: Pedro Cá

SPECIAL PROGRAMME
BA IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

Dialogue with Creatives

José Mendes and Graficalismo

5TH OF JUNE, 2025
10AM – 12.30AM
2PM VISIT TO THE EXHIBITION
ROOM 50 EP1 – ESAD.CR

Dialogue with Creatives is a colloquium/journey taking place in the exhibition space of ESAD.CR’s 2025 Final Year Show. It aims to generate a forward-looking conversation between graduating students, teachers, and designers with different experiences and perceptions of “design ecologies” in Portugal and beyond.

Key questions include: what can a school like ESAD.CR offer in preparing students today? What major changes are expected in this and other similar institutions? How can students be ready for the big transformations ahead in society?

The event has two parts:
First, a forum where designers are introduced and invited to share experiences, presenting one project from their student days and one professional project, discussing exercises, methods, goals, and expectations of design as a pedagogical tool.
The second part is a student-led guided tour of the final-year exhibition in a direct, dialogical mode.

SPECIAL PROGRAMME
BA IN SOUND AND IMAGE

Performance by André Neto

4TH OF JUNE, 2025
6PM
ROOM 20 EP1 – ESAD.CR

Screening of final-year students’ films in development

5TH OF JUNE, 2025
9.30M
AUDITORIUM EP1 – ESAD.CR

SPECIAL PROGRAMME
BA IN CULTURAL PROGRAMMING AND PRODUCTION

Cultural programming and production – what profession, what future?

5TH OF JUNE, 2025
IN THE PINE GROVE BETWEEN EP1 AND EP2 – ESAD.CR

PART 1 – 3PM
Vera Appleton – Appleton Square (Lisbon)
Sara Abrantes – Materiais Diversos (Minde)
João Garcia Neto – GreTUA (Aveiro)
Susana Pinheiro – A Oficina (Guimarães)
Joana Pinho – Casa do Comum (Lisbon)

PART 2 – 4.30PM
Dina Santos – Cultural and Congress Centre (Caldas da Rainha)
Axel Vala and Andreia Morais – Leirena Theatre (Leiria)
Ulisses Dias and Cátia Candeias – Bang Venue (Torres Vedras)
Francisco Neves – A Oficina (Guimarães)
Ellen Fortes – Miguel Franco Theatre (Leiria)

The final internship — held in the second semester of the third year — is the highlight of the BA in Cultural Programming and Production. This 600-hour internship takes place in recognised cultural organisations, projects, or institutions, aiming to provide students with excellent knowledge in areas such as exhibition curating, consultancy and cultural project management, communication and content production, festival programming, and cultural production — whether in public or private, institutional or independent contexts.

Matching the students’ profiles with their host institutions benefits from the programme’s teaching staff, who maintain active professional practice and support the establishment of national and international partnerships.

Given the significance of this stage in their academic journey, the students decided to create a cultural programme for the final-year exhibition that includes their host institutions — holding conversation circles in the pine grove to present the school to institutions and vice versa. This year, internships also took place at Festival Tremor, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, Teatro Municipal do Porto, Largo Residências, Associação Emerge, 95 Art Gallery, and Caldas da Rainha Municipality.

Credits:

Organisers: Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (MA in Cultural Management at the School of Arts and Design in Caldas da Rainha), UNESCO Chair in Arts and Culture Management, Cities and Creativity, LiDA – Research Lab in Art and Design, GEPAC – Office for Strategy, Planning and Cultural Assessment, and the Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO

Partners: Municipality of Caldas da Rainha, Festival Impulso, and the National Arts Plan