Marilyn Revisited

In the year marking the centenary of the birth of Marilyn Monroe (1926–2026), this exhibition is centred on a singular work by Artur Casais (1937–2022): a monumental collection of five albums comprising hundreds of cardboard sheets and thousands of clippings, collages, and photomontages dedicated to the most iconic figure in 20th-century popular culture.

The result of decades of research, collecting, and meticulous organisation of images sourced from magazines, newspapers, and film publications, these albums function simultaneously as archive, collection, and artwork in continuous development. More than a documentary repository, they reveal the intensity of a personal passion transformed into an extraordinary visual cartography of Marilyn Monroe.

Drawing on this legacy, five contemporary artists* were invited to intervene freely on one of the albums, appropriating the material gathered by Artur Casais to create a new, autonomous work. This curatorial gesture proposes a dialogue between generations, languages, and sensibilities, transforming the archive into a living medium and reactivating Marilyn Monroe’s image through new perspectives.

Between memory and reinvention, between collecting and creating, the exhibition questions the persistence of contemporary visual myths and the ability of certain images to transcend time, continually renewing their meanings.

Exhibition presented on the occasion of the centenary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth.