ArtistDictionaries

“As a nomad with a serially monogamous passion for place, I often wonder if this inconstancy constitutes hopeless fragmentation or hopeful integration” Lucy Lippard

DicionáriosDeArtista /ArtistDictionaries, is a site-specific drawing project, started in 2010, whose main objective is to create a compilation of graphic reflections (through drawing) on ​​the specificities of the places experienced during my nomadic life journey, mixing the practice of drawing with the autoethnography.

It focuses on the direct relationship between the metamorphoses and reconfigurations of my daily routine, the relationship with others and the construction of a critical view of contemporary society, in a process of knowledge, self-knowledge and adaptation to new contexts. More generally, I pursue the idea of ​​”experiencing myself” living in different geographic areas of the world, in order to carry out research on differences, contrasts and cultural similarities from personal experiences. It consists of a set of artist’s books, produced in various places around the world, which visually show a critical, creative and self-reflective look at local specificities in the personal, cultural, social and political dimensions of the places investigated from the lived experience. The drawings that integrate the various artist books in ArtistDictionaries are never made from direct observation. In this sense, the experience of the place consciously summons other senses beyond sight. They are produced in the studio, during the period of stay in the places, through a process that calls for the act of daily interpersonal relationships, reflection and self-reflection, personal memory and imagination. The materials used are markers, felt and gel pens on locally purchased notebooks, (approximately A5 format). It is a project that is still under development, accompanying and feeding my itinerancy.

DicionáriosDeArtistaA:Alentejo/ ArtistDictionaries:Alentejo explores two dimensions of the same place: Aljustrel, the village where I grew up and with which I have a residual connection, and Alentejo, a vast national territory that I perceive in a specific way, related to my roots and personal cross cultural experience. By reexamining past experiences in order to question the present and the future, I reflect deeply on my identity, accepting its benign instability.

DicionáriosDeArtista:Ålvik / ArtistDictionaries:Ålvik, was created between January and April 2018 during the Internacional Artist Residency program as a guest artist at KHMessen in Norway. Living in Ålvik has put me in touch with the Norwegian countryside. The artist book is focused on how the new culture and social context impacted, updated and modified my routine, to continue shaping my identity and expand a way of understanding the dilemmas of contemporary society. Influenced by the magnificent landscape of the fjords, the cold of the Nordic winter and some contact with the local population, the experience in Ålvik has been a kind of wonderful hibernation.

DicionáriosDeArtista:Shanghai /ArtistDictionaries:Shanghai, was produced between May and August 2017 during the International Artist Residency program as a guest artist at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. The work explores my relationship to the city of Shanghai and the Chinese culture previously unknown to me. It focused on survival strategies, starting from my own condition as a foreigner and without access to the most powerful contemporary tool: the mobile internet.

DicionáriosDeArtista:CaldasDaRainha / ArtistDictionaries:CaldasDaRainha, was produced between November 2015 and April 2016, during the first months of my return to Caldas da Rainha, after a ten year absence . The work explores the relationship between the memories of the previous experience and my new way of re-seeing and re-living in the city.

DicionáriosDeArtista:Maputo /ArtistDictionaries:Maputo, was produced between June 2011 and July 2014, during my stay in Mozambique. The work reflects on my life experience in the Mozambican capital, where the direct relationship between the practice of drawing and cultural integration takes relevance.

 

The project was exhibited in 2018 at Fortaleza de Maputo (Maputo, Mozambique) integrated in the collective exhibition Desarmonia Fluente  with the artist Jorge Dias and  2017 at  Bessa Pereira gallery (Lisbon), integrated in the exhibition Em Linha (In Line) curated by Juan Gonçalves. The exhibition was part of the parallel program of the Colloquium Multiple Expression: theory and practice of drawing, held at the FBAUL.