A man called Nicolai Sarbib
➔ Nicolai Sarbib
Nicolai’s Algerian grandfather, Roger Sarbib, moved to Paris as a young boy to study music, becoming a jazz pianist, and accompanying artists such as Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt, as well as playing with an orchestra.
Being of Jewish descent, in 1940 he fled France during World War II and moved to Barcelona, where he met Nicolai's Portuguese grandmother, with whom he eventually moved to Portugal.
Nicolai's father and uncle, who grew up in Portugal’s Douro region, also became musicians. Together, they started several rock bands in the Portuguese 1960s yé-yé scene, like "Quinteto Académico", "Tártaros" or “Pentágono”.
They later got involved in the jazz scene. His father became a renowned jazz pianist in Portugal. His uncle introduced several groundbreaking jazz projects in Portugal and was notorious in the Paris and New York's jazz scenes. He later retired and became an art dealer.
Jacqui, Nicolai’s mother, a contemporary dancer, met his father when she came to Portugal in the early 1980s to perform in a show she was touring with. Nicolai was born in the UK and brought up in Portugal, between Porto and Lisbon, where he moved to at the age of 10.
It becomes obvious that music and artistic pursuits have been running in the family long before he was born.
He began studying journalism in the UK upon the idea of writing about music - a passion seeded in the roots of his upbringing. During this time, he was encouraged by a teacher to pursue graphic design, as he had regularly started doing flyers for his friends' bands. This eventually inspired him to switch paths. He moved back to Lisbon where he studied graphic design at Ar.Co and later earned a scholarship to finish his studies in New York's School of Visual Arts, where he was fortunate to learn critical and conceptual thinking from some of the world’s best designers.
Upon returning to Portugal, he quickly felt disappointed with the lack of creative freedom, especially in the world of big name agencies. “They just wanted me to copy something that they've seen four years ago somewhere else. I immediately hated working as an agency graphic designer, it wasn't interesting to me at all.”
Getting to Thirdbase
Nicolai became more engaged with projects that he came across within the cultural sector, which allowed him to collaborate with artists and art festivals, either in music, theatre, or graphic design. “It built me up. I got a lot of experience doing things that I really wanted to do”, he recalls. In 2018, he was hired by two investors looking to establish a contemporary art-focused hotel in Lisbon, which would include art residencies, an art gallery as well as an exciting cultural programme open to the public.
Presented with this opportunity, Nicolai leveraged his experience working with artists within multiple fields and producing events, and took on the role of Artistic Director.
Headed by Nicolai, the project called Thirdbase would go on to establish an artist residency program and a gallery space in Beato, that allowed artists from various disciplines to produce site-specific installations for spaces within the hotel.
“For six years, I ran this space where artists could work on their art pieces for 3-month residencies coming from all over the world and different visual arts fields, from sculpture to photography, painting to video art. We also had an apartment where they could stay, a great studio space and gave them a production budget for their project. It was great because the investors really supported us and trusted me with the curation.”
The hotel ended up not coming to fruition but Nicolai got this intensive learning experience for 4 years, dealing with artists daily, selecting different projects, helping to produce and curate regular exhibitions of those works at Thirdbase.
Salto Alto [high heel / high leap]
With the end of Thirdbase, Nicolai decided to find a new way to carry on developing work as a curator and programmer.
Thirdbase's residencies and gallery space, originally an old shoe factory that had later become a studio for artists, looked a bit cavernous when he had first moved in. After some years investing in renovations, building a community around it, and curating exhibitions there, it made sense to go on doing something with it. He decided to keep the lease himself and give it a new identity, turning it into an independent art gallery and permanent studios spaces for artists to work.
Salto opened in 2022 and has hosted regular exhibitions, performances, talks and other art events. On the bottom floor it hosts four artist spaces and a shared workshop.
Salto means both "heel" and "leap" in Portuguese. A play on words with the origins of the space and its renewed life. It’s run as a non-profit gallery that showcases a lot of up and coming artists, as well as a body of work less adapted for the institutional side of the art world.
Nicolai managed the project on his own since its beginning handling programming, curation, day-to-day affairs in the studio, communication and promotion. In 2024 he invited fellow art curator, David Silva Revés to join the project, becoming Salto's new co-director and co-curator.
What Comes Ahead
At Salto, the way to move forward is, obviously, with a leap into something new. After working with no funding for almost two years, in 2024 they applied to DGARTES [national public funding for the arts]. Salto is funded for the next year, with a cycle of exhibitions and art events. The gallery is already fully booked for 2025. Step by step, they’re trying to find ways to make the project financially viable, working and planning towards 2026, both the programme and the funding applications, to be able to keep doing what they want to do.
An important element for them has been to establish relevant partnerships, such as the one with Sol, an artist run Space for Contemporary Art on the harbour in Nexø, Bornholm (Sweden). Interesting links have also been established in different regions of Portugal, with Alfaia, in Loulé, and with Aderno, an artist residency project in Buçaco.
What are their goals for Salto?
“Salto needs to be this non-profit space dedicated to experimentation and the promotion of diverse expressions of contemporary art, where we can really do what we want and work the way we want, independently. It’s more oriented to lesser known artists, young artists, outsiders, experimental artists, people who may have exhibited before but tend to stay in the margins. We want to show the work that we think is conceptually interesting”.
An Entrepreneur in Denial
Nicolai doesn’t see himself as an entrepreneur: “There’s been a lot of DIY, yeah. But I lack the financial drive: my projects are usually a lot of work and not so much pay”.
But the signs are all there. He can’t seem to be able to stop himself. On top of Thirdbase and Salto, he’s been a DJ for 20 years. For a few years, he worked as a music curator, selecting music for a wide array of high-end places and brands in the world. “Music has been a huge part of my life. I started collecting super young, I must have been six or seven years old when I started to buy CDs, and 13 or 14 when I got into vinyl”, he says proudly.
Nicolai also never stopped doing different design projects and collaborations, mostly with Lisbon’s arts scene. “I'm at a point where I want to figure out a long-term project which gives me some stability, so I'm working on setting up a small agency, combining my experience in contemporary art, mixed with music and graphic design."
He would like to bridge the gap between arts and brand consultancy, curate special collaborations with artists and take care of communications, graphic design, music, and production. "I don't think other agencies are doing this in Portugal and I have a vision on how to connect these different areas”.
And just like any good old entrepreneur, he’s lately been busy with fundraising for what comes ahead.
Community-Centered
Nicolai moved his workspace to Xabregas [Beato, Lisbon] in 2018, after recognizing its potential as a hub for creativity. His work had been deeply tied to collaborations with Portuguese artists and cultural figures João Pedro Vale and Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, who used to work there. At the time, Xabregas offered affordable studio space for creative projects.
Today, there are many different studios of artists in the area and one of Salto’s recent shows featured artists who have studios next door, in Centro Comercial de Xabregas. According to Nicolai, "in the evolving dynamics of Xabregas and the surrounding neighborhoods of Beato and Marvila, Salto wants to maintain accessibility and foster community ties. Through partnerships with local NGOs, such as Associação dos Moradores do Beato [a residents’ association], we are establishing projects and creating opportunities for local schools, senior organizations, and young local artists”.
There is no doubt that change has brought vitality to formerly abandoned areas, but Nicolai claims the long-term needs of the community must not be neglected. “We need balanced policies to preserve affordable housing and studio spaces. Businesses and policymakers must prioritize integration with the local community to maintain the authenticity of Lisbon’s neighborhoods’ unique identity - which is what attracted newcomers in the first place”, he says.
It’s pretty obvious Nicolai loves the neighborhood. He eats at local places, knows the people who work around him, and clearly enjoys the community. “I feel like if we can contribute to that community, and still do what we're doing, the way we're doing, then we have a good thing here”.
