Francisca Gigante

Biography
Francisca Gigante was born in Lisbon. Lives and works in between Venice and Lisbon. PhD Candidate in Art History at Universidade Nova de Lisboa with national funds from Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P (2022-2026). She is a Member of the Institute of Art History Research Group in Contemporary Art (CASt) at the IHA NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST. Francisca Gigante was Visiting Researcher at Università Ca’ Foscari (2023-2024) and Visiting Researcher at University of Kassel (2024-2025). She graduated as an MA in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York (2017), after completing a semester in Contemporary Art Histories in London and the Art History: Rennaissance Art to Present summer school course. Prior to that, Francisca earned a BA in Communication from the Catholic University of Portugal (2015). During the past seven years, Francisca worked between Venice and Lisbon for non-profit art organizations, such as Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia (2017-2019), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (2017-2019), and MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, EDP Foundation (2018), coordinating +250 international interns, writing catalogues and completing +100 interviews to contemporary artists and curators. She is Director of the non-profit cultural institution FITA - Friends In The Arts and Editor of FITA Magazine (2020-). She is the author of praised articles on arts and culture in FITA Magazine, Mesa Redonda, Sete Margens and Observador. She was awarded The Seal of The Speaker of The United States House of Representatives (2019) by Nancy Pelosi  for her outstanding services at the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia and received The Merit Scholarship by the Catholic University of Portugal (2012).

Works
The Banquet of Eternity, 2024, Pavilion of Croatia, “By Means At Hand”, 60. International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2024 (Venice, 2024)
Hausbau Series, 2024, Private Collections (Lisbon, 2024)
documenta fifteen: postales del futuro, 2023, Reading-Performance, 60. International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2024 (Venice, 2024)

Publications
FITA Magazine Vol. I / Invisible Atlas (Venice, 2021)
FITA Magazine Vol. II / Garden Constellation (Lisbon, 2021)
FITA Magazine Vol. III / Star Portraits (London, 2022)
FITA Magazine Vol. IV / Time Travel (Berlin, 2023)
PARTE Book (Portugal Art Encounters, 2022)

Interviews
Friends In The Arts. Uma FITA pelo Mundo, Fórum Estudante, Teatro Thalia (Lisbon, 2021)
Francisca Gigante: Não podemos estar fechados num mundo que é cheio de possibilidades, Interview, Gerador (Lisbon, 2020)
Duas portuguesas em quarentena restrita em Itália, Interview, Público (Lisbon-Venice, 2020)
Com um pé em Lisboa e outro em Veneza, Francisca Gigante cria pontes entre a curadoria e a mediação cultural, Interview (Lisbon-Venice, 2019)
A Cultura do Encontro, 70x7, RTP2 (Lisbon, 2014)

Articles
Exhibition Politics. Die documenta und die DDR, de Alexia Pooth, FITA Magazine (Lisbon, 2024)
O Grande Armazém dos Sonhos, de Miye Lee, FITA Magazine (Lisbon, 2024)
A Saga de Gösta Berling, de Selma Lagerlöf, FITA Magazine (Lisbon, 2024)
documenta fifteen: postales del futuro, FITA Magazine Vol. IV (Berlin, 2023)
Debaixo da tua janela: Miró, Calder, Grossman e Rabah, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2023)
Artistas migrantes: Magritte, Rothko e Michael Biberstein, Sete Margens (Lisbon, 2023)
Uma perspetiva de renovação: O corpo através da obra de Helena Almeida e Claude Rutault, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2023)
O futuro só a Deus pertence, Sete Margens (Lisbon, 2022)
Uma exposição imaginada, Sete Margens (Lisbon, 2022)
Olga Tokarczuk: Estrela Nobel da Literatura em Língua Portuguesa, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2022)
Subir Aquela Colina, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2022)
Shilpa Gupta, Tacita Dean e Salomé Lamas: quando a arte ecoa espiritualidade, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2022)
Paisagem flutuante, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2021)
Venice Biennale and documenta in Kassel: Nationalism and Internationalism Crossroads, FITA Magazine Vol. I (Venice, 2021)
FITA Magazine: a nova revista internacional de arte e cultura, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2021)
Artistas expõem (n)o Myanmar, Mesa Redonda (Lisbon, 2021)
Diluir-nos em água, Faculty of Fine Arts University of Lisbon (FBAUL) and ARCOLisboa (Lisbon, 2019)

Exhibition Catalogues
Color Migrations (Lisbon, 2023-2024)
Raízes, FITA Kiosk Docas (Lisbon, 2021)
Red-Yellow-Blue, FITA Kiosk Docas (Lisbon, 2021)
Lugar Comum, Graça Convent (Lisbon, 2021)
Interiores / Exteriores, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Um Imaginário Em Recados, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Terra-Pátria, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Invisible Atlas, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Por Convite, Espaço Cultural das Mercês (Lisbon, 2021)
Corpo-Fumo, Tarimba (Lisbon, 2021)
Babel, Biblioteca de Alcântara (Lisbon, 2021)
Quantos A4 cabem no Àquatro?, Tarimba, (Barreiro, 2020)
Tridimensionalidade Aparente, Tarimba, Galeria António Prates (Lisbon, 2020)
Crowd, take me home, Tarimba (Lisbon, 2020)
Distância, Pousio Arte e Cultura (Lisbon-Venice, 2020)
Almada 360, Tarimba (Almada, 2019)
Estoutro, Espaço Cultural das Mercês, JRS, Plataforma Internacional de Apoio a Refugiados, Junta de Freguesia da Misericórdia (Lisbon, 2019)
Todos somos água, Cisterna FBAUL, ARCOLisboa (Lisbon, 2019)
Campo del Cielo, Beco Beco (Lisbon, 2019)
De fio a pavio, de uma ponta à outra, Tarimba, Alcântara (Lisbon, 2018-2019)
anti_mini_pro biennale, 57th International Art Exhibition, “Viva Arte Viva,” Venice Biennale 2017, Il Forno (Venice, 2017)

Curator
Color Migrations (Lisbon, 2023-2024)
Raízes, FITA Kiosk Docas (Lisbon, 2021)
Red-Yellow-Blue, FITA Kiosk Docas (Lisbon, 2021)
Lugar Comum, Graça Convent (Lisbon, 2021)
Interiores / Exteriores, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Um Imaginário Em Recados, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Terra-Pátria, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Invisible Atlas, FITA Kiosk Estrela (Lisbon, 2021)
Por Convite, Espaço Cultural das Mercês (Lisbon, 2021)
Corpo-Fumo, Tarimba (Lisbon, 2021)
Quantos A4 cabem no Àquatro?, Tarimba (Barreiro, 2020)
Tridimensionalidade Aparente, Tarimba, Galeria António Prates (Lisbon, 2020)
Crowd, take me home, Tarimba (Lisbon, 2020)
Distância (Pousio, 2020)
Almada 360, Tarimba (Almada, 2019)
Estoutro, Espaço Cultural das Mercês (Lisbon, 2019)
Campo del Cielo, Beco Beco (Lisbon 2019)
Todos somos água, Cisterna FBAUL (Lisbon, 2019)
De fio a pavio, de uma ponta à outra, Tarimba, Alcântara (Lisbon, 2018-2019)
anti_mini_pro biennale, Il Forno, Venice Biennale (Venice, 2017).

Interviews
Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, The Voice of a Generation, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. IV (Berlin, 2023)
Salomé Lamas, The Advocate for Parafiction, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. IV (Berlin, 2023)
Carolina Serrano, The Sculptor of the Temporal Dimension, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. IV (Berlin, 2023)
José Pimentão, The Time-Travelling Actor, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. IV (Berlin, 2023)
Erica Dorn, The French Dispatch Lead Graphic Designer, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. III (London, 2022)
Elizabeth Pergam, The Eternal Professor of the History of Collecting, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. III (London, 2022)
Elena Crippa, The Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. III (London, 2022)
Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark, Manifesting Empowerment Through Black Female Bodies, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. III (London, 2022)
Fernanda Arruda, Instituto Inhotim Curator, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. II (Lisbon, 2021)
Afonso Reis Cabral, Reading on the Grass, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. II (Lisbon, 2021)
JiaJia Fei, Digital Strategist For The Art World, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. II (Lisbon, 2021)
Inês Grosso, The New Chief Curator Of The Serralves Museum, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. II (Lisbon, 2021) The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Life Changing International Internship Program, Interview, FITA Magazine Vol. I (Venice, 2021)

Speaker
Tensions between national and international dimensions at the Venice Biennale and documenta in Kassel (1989-2019): from Heterotopias to Third Space, Università Ca’ Foscari, MA Contemporary Art (Venice, 2024)
The Venice Charter [Re]Framed, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, ARTIS (Lisbon, 2024)
Conference From Biennale to Biennials. The impossible desire, Università Ca’ Foscari (Venice, 2023)
Pop Up Feira de Emprego, NOVA FCSH (Lisbon, 2023)
IX Colóquio Internacional A Imagética da Resistência, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (Lisbon, 2021)
Convivial Cultures, 4Cs, XI Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture (Lisbon, 2021)
Como Construir um Portefólio, Masterclass, Câmara Municipal de Setúbal (Setúbal, 2021)
Como Construir um Portefólio, Workshop, NOVA FCSH (Lisbon, 2021)
Em Defesa do Papel da Arte na Sociedade, A Arte Lavra a Sociedade, Brotéria (Lisbon, 2021)
Navigating the Art World, Sotheby’s Institute of Art (New York, 2015)
Interface Ensino Superior/Mercado de Trabalho: Estratégias e Exigências, Comissão Setorial para a Educação e Formação (Lisbon, 2014)

PhD Project
Tensions between national and international dimensions at the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel: 1989-2019
Thematic areas: Art exhibitions; Europe; Venice Biennale; Documenta Kassel; Identity
Ciência ID: 8815-0CC9-91E8
ORCiD: 0000-0002-2462-2758

Awards
Seal of The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, United States of America Congresswoman, Venice Biennale 2019 (Venice, 2019)
Merit Scholarship for the Academic Year 2012-2013, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Lisbon, 2012)
Aluna do Ano, 12º Ano de Escolaridade, Colégio de Santa Doroteia (Lisbon, 2011)
Louvor de Agrupamento, Agrupamento 43, Corpo Nacional de Escutas (Lisbon, 2010)

Contact
franciscagigante@fcsh.unl.pt