On the occasion of the France-Portugal Season, maat – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology is presenting a broad overview of Antoine de Galbert’s personal collection in Portugal for the first time.

Guided by the site’s history and original purpose, the theme of the evening quickly imposed itself. Built in the early 20th century to supply Lisbon and the surrounding region with electricity, the Central Tejo power station bore witness to the far-reaching changes that took place at the start of the last century as power plants made electricity and lighting increasingly ubiquitous. Alongside the emergence of psychoanalysis, this energy revolution transformed the night and our relationship with it.

Providing an endless source of inspiration for artists, the night continues to permeate and infuse art with the philosophical, political, societal, ecological and scientific questions it raises. The night can evoke both hope and dread, but it is also a time and place for the freedom and transgression that offer such fertile ground for creation and are echoed in Antoine de Galbert’s collection. Arranged in a way that represents the passage from dawn to dusk, from blindness and disorientation to better days on the horizon, from nocturnal dreams to the cosmic night, the exhibition invites visitors to traverse this nocturnal space, which is so ripe for the imagination, dreams and visions of the future.