Lisbon based The Barber Shop was established in 2009 by Portuguese curator and artist Margarida Mendes, with the goal to create a stable platform for the encounter of cultural workers (and other professionals from diverse backgrounds), and for the exchange and reflection of ideas, related to current artistic practice, research and discourse. As Margarida Mendes argues, The Barber Shop does not follow a particular curatorial line; it rather functions up on the basis of on organic growth, and an intuitive structure, which connects introduced thematic realms.
The Barber Shop operates up on the basis of ephermal – usually one-night events, such as lectures, talks, discussions, readings or performative lectures. Among its other activities belongs an up on invitation residency program, and artist/curatorial projects with a focus on research and audience participation.
Due to its non-institutional nature and selection of projects, constructed with the awareness of the concerns of the local community, The Barber Shop has through out its five-year existence developed a wide audience. With its international program located between the borders of the educational, research and artistic, The Barber Shop occupies an irreplaceable position up on the Portuguese, as well as international art scenes.
http://thisisthebarbershop.blogspot.pt/
