Oficina Impossível is more than a gallery; it is a creative hub located in the historic district of Lisbon. Founded in 2018, our mission is to provide a platform for both established and emerging artists to experiment and showcase their work.
Our space includes an open gallery and private studios, fostering a unique environment where the creation process meets the final exhibition.
OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL is a space where an expanded concept of art is brought into practice, promoting not only artists but also artisans and other forms of creative work. But OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL is much more than an art gallery. It is also a space for creation, research, and action. In addition to permanently hosting artists’ studios, OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL promotes artistic residencies, runs an educational program with schools, and organizes cultural events of various kinds such as talks, workshops, performances, book launches, and more. OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL is therefore a creative platform where the arts and critical thinking intersect and amplify one another.
We understand art through the lineage of two major contemporary philosophers: Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Rancière. On the one hand, we define art through an affirmative gesture, the expression of a pre‑individual singularity that precedes the classifications separating art from craft. On the other hand, we define art as emancipation and the creation of a shared space of the sensible. For this reason, we conceive the gallery as a place of encounter, almost a living room with books and a chaise longue, where everyone can enter without any kind of constraint.
OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL therefore defines itself as an anti–White Cube. As an alternative, we propose the concept of a “Rainbow Circle”, in the sense that we give voice to a wide spectrum of creative practices and styles. Seeking to overcome conventions and elitism, we bring together established and emerging creators, many of whom are exhibiting for the very first time.
Founded by a Philosophy professor, OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL arises from the desire to bring philosophy into the field of the arts, putting into practice new forms of relation between art and philosophy as spaces of rhizomatic experimentation (without distinctions between the surface and the underground of knowledge and practice), transversal and interdisciplinary (because it crosses two very different disciplinary orders: art and philosophy). OFICINA IMPOSSÍVEL also emerges from the desire to promote open, socially engaged research — that is, inquiry not confined to the academic world, but action‑research in direct contact with the public sphere and its problems. It is driven by the will to create a working platform that is emancipated and emancipatory, a laboratory of transdisciplinary practices that, in itself, constitutes the establishment of a dissident space‑time of debate, confrontation of ideas, and critical thought, open to all.
Opening in Santos
Oficina Impossível settles in Santos, in central Lisbon. It begins as a vintage space with art pieces, but quickly becomes a coworking for artists, opening itself to diverse practices and a growing community.
Expansion and creation of private studios
With the rental of the first floor, the project gains new scale. Private studios for resident artists are created upstairs, while the ground floor is transformed into an exhibition space. In May, the symbolic opening takes place with the performance "A Oficina Impossível abre as suas portas", in which two artists paint a real door in real time — an inaugural gesture that affirms the experimental and performative spirit of the space.
Gallery inauguration and beginning of the conversation series
The gallery officially opens on 24 January 2020. From the very first exhibition, a series of public conversations with artists emerges, creating a space for shared thinking and open dialogue with the public. A few weeks later, in March, the pandemic forces the temporary closure of the gallery.
Pandemic, resilience, and reinvention
To ensure the survival of the space, the gallery is entrusted to artist David Reis Pinto, who occupies it for nearly three years, keeping it alive during a period of global suspension. Meanwhile, the studios remain active, sustaining the artistic community and allowing Oficina Impossível to continue as a place of work, encounter, and resilience.
Reopening of the gallery
In May 2024, the gallery reopens with the exhibition "Maio, maduro Maio", marking the beginning of a new cycle. Oficina Impossível asserts itself as an artistic and philosophical ecosystem: gallery, studios, residencies, education, and research coexist in one place, open to encounter, experimentation, and the impossible.
