- Insiders Profile -
Irina Gordienko
Founder of THE CURATED Lisbon
Irina is the founder of THE CURATED Lisbon, a platform born from a desire to experience the city's creative world from the inside. Through a curator's eye, she connects people with the artists, studios, galleries, and cultural spaces shaping Lisbon today, creating encounters that go beyond simply seeing art.
What began as a way of discovering and sharing Lisbon's creative scene has evolved into a growing programme of curated experiences. From private studio visits and conversations with artists to gallery walks and cultural itineraries, THE CURATED Lisbon opens doors that are often closed to the general public, offering a more personal way to understand the people, ideas, and processes behind the work.
This autumn, that philosophy takes on a new dimension as THE CURATED Lisbon and Lisbon Insiders join forces during Lisbon Insiders Restaurant Week. Through a series of special experiences combining art and gastronomy, guests will be invited to discover an artist's studio or cultural space before continuing the experience around the table at one of the participating restaurants. Two different ways of discovering Lisbon, brought together through the people and places shaping the city.
◆ What first made you feel that Lisbon needed something like THE CURATED Lisbon, and what did you want people to experience differently through it?
THE CURATED Lisbon grew very naturally out of my background in art and design advisory. My work has always been about looking, selecting, connecting, and creating context around art, design, and spaces.
A particularly important moment was my involvement in the launch and first edition of Lisbon Design Week around five years ago. Through that experience, I built a strong network across Lisbon’s creative ecosystem – artists, designers, makers, craftsmen, and people working with collectible design – and I realised how much extraordinary talent existed beyond the obvious cultural circuit.
At the same time, I travel extensively and am constantly exposed to museums, galleries, design destinations, architecture, hospitality and cultural projects internationally. That naturally shapes the way I look at Lisbon.
From the beginning, THE CURATED Lisbon was never meant to be an agenda or a complete overview of what is happening in the city. It is an authored selection - a personal and highly selective point of view on what I believe is worth discovering.
The response was encouraging almost immediately. Artists, galleries, institutions, media and cultural professionals often told us that Lisbon had been missing this kind of platform: not simply listing what is happening, but interpreting the city through a clear curatorial lens. Today, THE CURATED Lisbon has grown into a cultural brand working across private experiences, cultural curation and hospitality collaborations, while keeping that same point of view at its core.
◆ If you had to describe THE CURATED Lisbon in just three words, what would they be?
Selective. Sophisticated. Personal.
◆ THE CURATED Lisbon is increasingly about access, from entering artists’ studios to meeting the people behind the work. What changes when someone encounters art in this more intimate way rather than simply seeing it in a gallery or museum?
I think everything becomes more human. When you enter an artist’s studio, you are not only looking at the finished work. You see the process, the materials, the references, the experiments, and the atmosphere in which the work is created. Very often, you also have the chance to hear directly from the artist about the ideas behind the work.
I think this changes the relationship completely. Art becomes less distant and much more personal, emotional, and memorable. For me, this is one of the most interesting parts of these experiences – you begin to understand not only the artwork itself, but also the person, the process, and the thinking behind it. And afterwards, you often look at art differently, even when you see it again in a gallery or museum.
◆ There are many artists, exhibitions, studios, and creative spaces in Lisbon. What is your curatorial instinct? What makes you think, “this is something I want people to discover”?
For me, curation is always about having a point of view. I am interested in work with a strong identity - something authentic, distinctive, and with real substance. It can be an established artist or someone at the beginning of their career, a major institution or a very small independent studio.
I also look at context: how the work relates to the person behind it, the space, the materials, and the wider cultural conversation. Travel plays an important role in shaping my eye because I am constantly looking at art, design, architecture and hospitality internationally. That gives me a broad visual reference base, but there is also always an intuitive element.
Sometimes I enter a studio or meet a designer and immediately feel that this is something I want people to discover. Ultimately, THE CURATED Lisbon is not about covering everything. It is about selecting what feels genuinely worth paying attention to.
◆ Some of the most interesting experiences you create involve opening doors that aren’t normally accessible to the public. How do you build the trust and relationships that make those encounters possible?
I believe trust is built slowly. The network around THE CURATED Lisbon has grown over the years through studio visits, exhibitions, collaborations, conversations and simply by being present in the cultural scene. But I also think access has to be handled with a lot of respect. An artist’s studio is a working environment and often a very personal space, so I never want these visits to feel like tourism.
Our experiences are usually small and carefully considered, and the focus is always on the person and the practice behind the work. Over time, artists, designers and galleries understand that THE CURATED Lisbon brings people who are curious, respectful and genuinely interested in art and design. For me, that trust is one of the most valuable things we have built.
◆ Lisbon’s creative scene has changed enormously in recent years, with many Portuguese and international artists choosing to work here. What excites you most about the city’s art scene today, and what do you think makes it distinctive?
What excites me most is the mix of strong Portuguese cultural identity with an increasingly international creative community. Artists, architects, designers, collectors and cultural professionals are arriving from many different places and bringing their own references while engaging with the local context. That creates a very interesting exchange.
What still makes Lisbon distinctive is its sense of openness. The scene is not completely institutionalised or over-structured. You can discover an artist through a small independent project, visit a studio in an unexpected part of the city or encounter an exhibition in a private or unconventional space.
Compared with many larger cultural capitals, Lisbon still has a real sense of discovery. There is space for new voices, new formats and unexpected connections, and I think that is one of its greatest strengths.
◆ Art, design, food, and hospitality increasingly seem to overlap in the way people experience a city. Why do you think these worlds work so naturally together?
I think because they are all part of how we experience culture and places. We do not understand a city only through museums and monuments. We understand it through architecture, interiors, objects, food, craftsmanship, atmosphere and the way people welcome us.
For me, art, design, gastronomy and hospitality naturally belong together because they all shape how a place feels. The strongest hospitality projects understand this very well. A hotel or restaurant today can become a cultural space in its own right when art, design, food and programming are brought together in a thoughtful way.
This is also an important part of what we do at The Curated. We work with hospitality partners on cultural curation, exhibitions, artist collaborations and bespoke programming, connecting spaces with the local creative ecosystem. For me, the goal is not simply to place art inside a hotel. It is to create a cultural identity that feels authentic to the place.
◆ This autumn, THE CURATED Lisbon and Lisbon Insiders are bringing those worlds together during The Restaurant Week, pairing cultural experiences with dinner. What excites you about the idea of moving from an artist’s studio or cultural space to the restaurant table?
I like the idea because the cultural experience does not end when you leave the studio or exhibition. Very often, after seeing something interesting, you want to talk about it, exchange impressions, and continue the conversation. Moving from a cultural space to the dinner table creates a very natural continuation.
There is also something very Lisbon about that rhythm - moving slowly between places, stopping for a drink or dinner, and allowing the experience to unfold rather than rushing from one destination to another. For me, some of the most memorable cultural moments are not only about what you saw, but about the conversations that happened afterwards.
◆ Our readers love discovering Lisbon through the eyes of true Insiders. What are five cultural places, creative spaces, or experiences in Lisbon that continue to inspire you and that you think people should discover?
I would choose a mixture rather than five traditional cultural institutions.
– First, Gulbenkian and especially CAM. I love the combination of architecture, art, and garden, and it remains one of Lisbon’s most complete cultural experiences.
– Second, MAAT and the Belém riverside. The architecture, light and landscape create a very distinctive setting for contemporary culture.
– Third, Marvila, not as one single destination but as an area to explore through its galleries, independent spaces and industrial architecture.
– Fourth, Ajuda, where there is an extraordinary concentration of artists, designers, craftsmen and makers working behind relatively discreet doors.
And finally, I would choose the experience of visiting an artist’s or designer’s studio itself. For me, it remains one of the most interesting ways to understand contemporary Lisbon because you encounter the city through the people actively shaping its culture.
◆ Finally, what is your ambition for THE CURATED Lisbon? As the project grows beyond discovering art into creating experiences and opening new doors around the city, where would you love to take it next?
My ambition is to develop The CURATED Lisbon into a recognisable cultural brand with one strong point of view expressed through experiences, hospitality, journeys and, increasingly, our own curated projects.
One important direction is cultural curation for hospitality and other B2B partners – creating exhibitions, programming, artist collaborations and cultural concepts that connect brands and spaces with the local creative ecosystem.
Another is The Curated Journeys. Following our Venice Biennale edition, we are developing future editions in destinations such as Madrid, Paris, Copenhagen and beyond.
These are highly curated journeys seen entirely through THE CURATED Lisbon lens. It is not only about which exhibitions, studios or cultural spaces we visit, but also where we stay, where we eat and how the whole experience feels. We look for design-oriented hotels, strong architecture, thoughtful interiors, interesting gastronomy and places with a clear sense of identity, so art, design and hospitality become part of one coherent journey.
We are also developing a gallery direction focused on a selective edit of contemporary art and collectible design, alongside exhibitions and pop-up projects. My hope is that this can eventually evolve into our own permanent space.
And of course, we will continue doing what has always been central to The Curated: opening doors, creating meaningful access, and introducing people to artists, designers, and places they would not necessarily discover on their own.
As the brand grows, what matters most to me is preserving its identity. Whatever we do should feel unmistakably THE CURATED Lisbon – refined, selective, personal and considered. I want people to trust that when something appears under THE CURATED Lisbon name, it has been chosen for a reason.
