Youth Collective MAAT - Open day
Bridges do the unknown is collaborating with MAAT for the Youth Collective MAAT 2025/26 open day, an active participation programme run by the museum for young people aged 16 to 24. This year's theme is ‘Ramifications: Art, City and Brain in Motion [Art, Neuroscience, Technology].’
Registration is open to all young people who come from a background in film, science, dance, engineering, gaming, visual arts – or are you just curious about the world and yourselves. MAAT invites to an Open Day with a programme that blends art, architecture, neuroscience and technology, combining creative practices with contemporary research.
Conception and guidance: Fabrícia Valente; with special collaborations from Os Espacialistas and Bridges to the unknown – Champalimaud Foundation
Price: Free
Venue: MAAT Central + MAAT Gallery + Champalimaud Foundation
Audience: Young people aged 16 to 24
Language: Portuguese and English
Capacity: Max. 30 people Min. 10 people
Registration: mailto: visitar.maat@edp.pt (until 9 September)
PROGRAMME
11.00 | Welcome and ‘Ramifications Map’ dynamics
With Fabrícia Valente and Joana Simões Henriques
Presentation of the MAAT 2025/26 Youth Collective: who we are, what we're going to do, and how you can get involved.
The creative activity ‘Ramifications Map’ will be a relaxed space to exchange ideas and identify common ground between participants, visualising links between their interests and the themes of the programme.
12.00 | Speed Staff Talks – Behind the scenes at MAAT
A ‘speed dating’ session with professionals from various areas of MAAT (curators, producers, communication, mediation, and technical staff, among others). From challenges to behind-the-scenes curiosities, we want to bring you closer to the real working practices of a museum and share authentic experiences.
13.00 | Picnic lunch in the MAAT gardens
14.00| MAAT → Champalimaud Foundation artistic walking tour
Guided by the Os Espacialistas collective, we set off to discover the territory that unites MAAT and the Champalimaud Foundation. A performative and conceptual ambulation about the body, the city and the landscape, where the path is also an experience.
17.00 | Reception at the Champalimaud Foundation
Introduction by the Bridges to the Unknown team to the universe of neuroscience: How the brain interprets the world around us, integrating the different sensory and perception systems in the construction of our representation of the world.
Guided tour of the Champalimaud Centre's laboratories, one of Europe's most innovative facilities in the field of biomedical research.
17.30 | Interactive Workshop: Art, Neuroscience and Technology
A hands-on session to explore immersive technologies and virtual realities as applied to the study of human cognition and behaviour. We will discuss and experiment with how art and science meet in these experiences, what it means to be immersed (with or without technology), and how these experiences can expand our perception of the world.
19.30 | Drinks & Networking
An informal meeting with students and researchers from the Champalimaud Foundation's neuroscience programme. A chance to exchange ideas, journeys and inspiration with people who, like you, cross different areas of knowledge.
