The Light of Lisbon

Considered its quintessential intangible icon, Lisbon’s light has been celebrated by poets, writers, painters and other artists, and captured by the most renowned photographers and filmmakers from Lisbon, Portugal and beyond. But what makes this light so special?

The exhibition aimed to answer this question for the first time, exploring the particularity of Lisbon’s light in scientific terms and seeking to understand the objective and subjective characteristics that help to make it so special.

Curated by Ana Eiró, a professor of physics and former director of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, and Acácio de Almeida, a photography director in the Portuguese and international film industries, the exhibition was held in partnership with the Imagens de Marca programme with support from the EDP Foundation, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Faculty of Science at the University of Lisbon, the Lisbon Video Library and the Municipal Photographic Archive, among other institutions.