International cultural relations in a shifting political landscape: artistic exchanges between Poland and Portugal after 1974

This article examines the history of cultural relations between Poland and Portugal in the context of the political and systemic shifts that took place in Europe over the last fifty years: the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal, the Polish Crisis of the early 1980s, the end of the Cold War in 1989, and Poland’s 2004 EU accession. These events directly affected bilateral relations between the two states and their international cultural policies, shaping the dynamics of Polish-Portuguese cultural exchanges. Poland and Portugal are examined here as geographically distant smaller players on the international stage whose mutual cultural relations have received little scholarly attention. Building on earlier research indicating that smaller players developed significant ties despite geopolitical constraints, the article traces the evolution of Polish-Portuguese cultural exchange during both the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, highlighting changes in its intensity and reciprocity. Particular attention is devoted to the exchange of art exhibitions and to the changing political factors that influenced it at different moments in European history. In doing so, it demonstrates how cultural exchange between smaller European states remained contingent on changing geopolitical circumstances, domestic political developments, and institutional initiatives.