Ephemeral Museum

The Ephemeral Museum is the first ephemeral art museum in the world.

It is located in Bairro Alto, in the heart of Portugal’s capital, Lisbon. This museum is sponsored by Pampero Fundación and it is part of the Pampero Rum campaign, developed by Leo Burnett Lisboa advertising agency.

The first Ephemeral Museum of the world, created by Leo Burnett for the Pampero Fundación, expands its frontiers. After its inauguration in Bairro Alto, new spots have “opened its doors” in São Bento and Amoreiras, where new and classic talents unite to promote the best of national and international street art. It can be seen after January 29.

In July 2008, Leo Burnett transformed the streets of Bairro Alto – Lisbon’s bohemian quarter - into a true outdoor museum. The concept fit in perfectly with the Lisbon streets, known for being the stage for the graffiti cult and other forms of street art. In these very streets, the Ephemeral Museum is born.

The Museum’s success was immediate. Soon, and keeping up the same concept, São Bento and Amoreiras were elected as the new sites for the Museum’s expansion as a dynamic space in constant growth, with the endless ambition of becoming the world’s largest street gallery.

The idea jump-started when Leo Burnett set up a marketing plan for Pampero’s rum, creating a place where everyday street artists could be acknowledged. For this vision to become reality, careful analysis of street art manifestations had to take place (graffiti, stencils, stickers) in order to separate true art from vandalism. We identify and catalogue the works (author and title). Most importantly, it makes sense to state that this project is in no means an incentive for graffiti creation and acts of vandalism (which are normally associated to street art), but as a project that aims to draw attention to the need of a space that voices out and exhibits this style of art as an independent form of manifestation from vandalism, similar to the example in the Tate Modern Museum, in London.

In the new sites located in São Bento and Amoreiras, it is possible to contemplate the work of various generations of artists from all over the world. The galleries renown such artists like Exas, Creyz, Rote, Eko and Mito, Time, Pariz, Youth, From the Cave, Mace, as well as the international Kenor. Bairro Alto exhibits the works of international artists Dolk and Jef Aerosol, as well as national artists in the making such as Efeito Magenta and O Colectivo Bitmap.