DECENTRA-
LIZE
Initially installed in the epicentre of the country – Terreiro do Paço – under the motto DECENTRALIZE, the banners of this group of artists now travel 302km south for a new reinstallation and decentralization.
Creating a route that visually communicates with the city of Lagos through a series of flags that remind us of some of the artists who have passed through the LAC artist residencies and many others who may one day pass through.
This installation of flags arose from a concern not to keep artistic objects in a “drawer”, but to return them to their natural habitat, to the place for which they were created – the street.
This installation is a re-adaptation of the installation created by/for the Festival Iminente 2023 at Lagos Marina.
CÁSSIO MARKOWSKI
Cássio Markowski’s work moves between drawing and painting, also venturing into video and installation as an expansion of his practice. His artistic production involves a process of reflection on different socio-cultural aspects of Afro-Brazilian history. This visual universe, which is simultaneously autobiographical and fictional, political and poetic, fuses his personal memories with collective experiences and traumas. With a particular aesthetic, Cássio composes images that explore aspects related to the memory of the African diaspora in the Americas, fantasy and childhood, creating a universe where nature emerges as a metaphor for reinvention and healing. In 2023, he won the Sovereign Portuguese Art Prize and recently became part of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora.
Synopsis: The main colors of the flag made for the 2023 Imminent Festival are blue, which symbolizes the sea and the passage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Red represents the African blood spilled during the centuries of slavery. White symbolizes an idealized world and the desire of these men and women for peace and freedom, while the clouds and swords of Santa Barbara represent the strength and determination of the orisha Iansã, who in Umbanda governs storms and thunder.
JOÃO FORTUNA
João Fortuna’s art reflects contemporary times. Technology, revolution and loneliness are dominant themes. His pieces are built in layers where a multitude of images create three-dimensional stories that challenge our eyes. With a degree in History of Art from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra, he sought further training in the areas of Joinery, Embutidos e Tallha (Ricardo Espírito Santo Foundation), Drawing (National Society of Fine Arts), Conservation and Restoration, Painting and Engraving. But it was in collage, considered one of the poorest expressions in the world of plastic arts, that he found his form of communication. Through technical and thematic renewal, he created his own aesthetic language, where maximalist images and staging are architecturally constructed between the different layers of wood, in a kind of multidimensional universe.
HALFSTUDIO
Mariana Branco (b. 1986) and Emanuel Barreira (b. 1986) are the artists behind Halfstudio, a collective based in Portugal that develops projects in various creative areas, always with lettering and sign painting at their core. Their visual language is characterized by three-dimensional letters and dynamic layouts, reflecting striking messages and vibrant colors. Developing studio pieces as well as public art, their approach incorporates contemporary themes and ideas and a careful concern for the communities in which their works are located. The duo have presented their work at exhibitions and urban art festivals in Portugal and internationally.
Synopsis: The word “they” is often used in a prejudiced and derogatory way to refer to immigrants, people of different ethnicities from our own and inhabitants of poorer neighborhoods. Examples of this are: “They don’t want to work”, “They’ve come to steal our jobs” or “They don’t want to integrate”.
“They” appears as a way of separating “them” from “us”, when in reality: They are us, or at least that’s how it should be.
We are all people and we should all have the same rights.
INÊS GARCIAS
Inês Garcias (Lisbon, 1998). She attended the Escola Artística António Arroio, where she specialized in Performing Arts in 2016, and finished her degree in Fine Arts at ESAD.CR. in 2021.
His work revolves around drawing, painting, ceramics and installation, with a special taste for multidisciplinary exploration. He uses narration as the motto of his artistic practice, aiming to place his work on the level of Storyteller, where he uses metaphor and, mostly, fable, to transfigure the reality he inhabits in environments that refer to children’s imagination.
She began exhibiting her projects more frequently in 2020, when she took part in Gato Vermelho, a cycle of performance shows organized by Electricidade Estética, in Caldas da Rainha, an event in which she took part in three different editions. Since then she has taken part in several group exhibitions, including Occupy the body, occupy the museum, Museu José Malhoa, Caldas da Rainha (2021), Dancer-Danger, Museu Leopoldo de Almeida, Centro de Artes, Caldas da Rainha (2021), The Limbo Plage, Campo Pequeno Art Gallery, Lisbon (2021), Korper, Centro de Artes, Caldas da Rainha (2021), Atlas of Ideal Landscapes.., Campo Pequeno Art Gallery, Lisbon (2022), Dois Elevado ao Cubo, Pop-Up Exhibition Cycle, Praça/Pousio, Lisbon (2022), 0038 – If Only, Mono, Lisbon (2022), Quimera, Absurda Art Fest, Arcos de Valdevez (2024).
In 2022 and 2023 she was invited to work as a visual artist at the Iminente Festival, where she made collective installation works in both editions, and in August 2023 she held her first solo exhibition, Passarinho Depenadinho, at NAV- Nunca Antes Visto, Campo Pequeno.
Title: The house that inhabited the back now inhabits the imagination
Synopsis: An illustrative sequence satirizing the housing crisis and inflation currently being experienced in Portugal, in which the tortoise and his shell guide us through an abbreviated secular journey of the various stages in the evolution of the human home, from the beginning of time (shell-nature) to the present day (no shell-no way of keeping a home).
NUNO VIEGAS
Nuno Viegas, also known as Metisone, is a Portuguese artist born in Faro (1985) and raised in Quarteira. Founder of the art collective Policromia Crew, he started his artistic journey through graffiti in 1999.
After completing his studies in Visual Arts at the University of Algarve he moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands, (2014) where he discovered a new artistic identity and began to develop his paintings strongly influenced by the graffiti movement. This has been the focus of the artist’s production and his greatest source of inspiration. Nuno presents us with a contrast between the visually aggressive and sometimes dirty reality of traditional graffiti and its peaceful and clean representation in his works. The approach of this theme is a continuous tribute to all those who dedicate part of their lives to this movement. Graffiti Writers who keep graffiti real and alive at a time when the definition of graffiti tends to get distorted and mixed up with Street Art. In 2016 Nuno worked with Street Art Today in Amsterdam which launched the artist into the Street Art scene, quickly catching the attention of Urban Nation Berlin – Museum of Contemporary Urban Art.
Over the following years the artist worked with Yasha Young Projects, Graffiti Prints and Thinkspace Gallery and now we can see his work expanding across murals and art institutions around the world always aiming to improve and move towards his dream – Signing the moon.
At the end of 2019, Nuno returns to his hometown Quarteira in Portugal, where he is currently based. In 2021 Nuno Viegas starts developing projects with Underdogs Gallery, the main Portuguese gallery dedicated to Contemporary Urban Art, which became its representative in Portugal.
PEDRO PODRE
Pedro Podre, b.1988, lives and works in Porto and graduated in Visual Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. He is a painter and muralist known for his illustrated and allegorical characters that explore issues of identity and contemporaneity.
Synopsis: Flag made in the context of the Imminent 2023 on the motto of decentralization. It’s important that there are several decentralized bodies to better understand the individual needs of each region. With this idea in mind, I created an image where the idea is cultivated in a central point, but naturally spreads and grows in other places where it will establish itself and fulfill the needs of the place where it was located.
TAMARA ALVES
Instagram Tamara Alves (b. 1983) is a Portuguese visual artist who lives and works in Lisbon. With a degree in Fine Arts (ESAD-IPL) and a master’s degree in Contemporary Artistic Practices (FBAUP), the artist has always been interested in a type of art that is “inserted” into the world, with the public space as the context where she prefers to present her work. Tamara Alves has been weaving a narrative that celebrates, in a raw and poetic way, the vitality of strong sensations, of an animal becoming, of raw passion, as opposed to rational deliberation. Based on the idea that our instincts are what define us, the artist invokes a universe of human and animal figures in interaction with the natural landscape and objects imbued with a strong symbolic charge that invites us to embrace feelings as a driving force, wild and untamed. A universe where love, always love (which is wound, pain, tears, but no less pleasure, rejoicing, ecstasy), can be the result of an impact, an accident, growing inside us like a wild flower. In addition to the numerous productions she has signed in the field of public art, in autonomous contexts or at events such as the WalkTalk Festival (São Miguel, 2012), Primavera Sound (Barcelona, 2019), Seven Suns Seven Moons Festival (Réunion, 2021; Frontignan, 2022), Nuart Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 2023) or the Artscape Festival (Vänersborg, 2023), the artist has also been exhibiting in various solo and group shows at spaces such as Ó! Galeria (Porto, 2010-2017), Artroom Gallery (Lisbon, 2017), Underdogs Gallery (Lisbon, 2020-2024), Artur Bual Gallery (Amadora, 2021), Casa da Cerca (Almada, 2022), Laurent Marthaler Contemporary (Montreux, 2023), MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon, 2023), p’Arte Gallery (Porto, 2023), Cordoaria Nacional (Lisbon, 2023) or Fabien Castanier Gallery (Miami, 2024), among many others. Title: I Will Mean Something To You Synopsis: The crumbling wall that merges with a face creates an image that suggests fragility and impermanence. The title suggests a search for meaning and connection, despite the wear and tear of time and memory. Through this portrait I hope to create a visual and emotional experience that is unsettling, highlighting the beauty that emerges from decay, found in imperfection, and the passage of time.
TIAGO HESP
Tiago Hesp (b. 1981) is a Portuguese artist with a multidisciplinary artistic career that takes in everything from mural art to music, illustration, set design and painting. With a degree in Scenography from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School (formerly the Lisbon Conservatory), Tiago Hesp has been exploring multiple techniques and approaches to his art, and has gained a lot of visibility for his graffiti work, which he has been doing since 1998.
Tiago Hesp paints to try to resolve himself as a human being in the world, in a permanent attempt to find the balance of having a place that is his alone. Always starting from the dark – reflected in the permanent black line, in the aggressiveness of its application – his works are an attempt to resolve and balance the various forces that affect him, in a battle in which the self and the self meet and dispute each other, trying to soften themselves in some middle ground between the black and the target.
Title: Stormctopus
Synopsis:
the margin is boiling, it’s everything that hasn’t been done in new life
From afar, those who aren’t close run, and the stomach tightens, yawns become screams, the shadow takes shape and the light becomes giant; neither fat nor slim, just hungry, a place as angry as blindness, burning wood without a fire and all the will in the world.
the center is gluttony, a blind stomach hungry for what is already there, it is short-sightedness, it is always daytime, we already have everything. The center chews, eats again, receives well, gives little back to those who have come from afar to give.
my flag is a pirate flag, it’s a dirty cloth flag, an octopus turned inside out, a stomach wall left in the air, the meat now belongs to all of us.
my flag is a pirate flag, raised high, taken by assault to have a voice, it’s a fat belly bitten in iron, a bonfire lit.
came from outside, made his mark.
RAQUEL BELLI
Raquel Belli is a mother, photographer and visual artist. Portuguese with Italian roots, she has lived and worked between Portugal and East Timor for the last ten years. With a degree in Fine Arts from ESAD.CR, she completed the Technical Photography Course at ETIC, where she developed and deepened her knowledge of scene photography. She had group and solo exhibitions during her studies, but it was after interning and working with Volta ao Mundo magazine that documentary and travel photography gained importance. In Timor, she collaborated in the creation of WAP (WomenArtPower), to empower women by supporting art made by women. In 2014, in collaboration with José Ramos-Horta and Xanana Gusmão, she published “Aqui Onde O Sol, Logo em Nascendo, Vê Primeiro”, about the peculiar Christmas in Timor. She collaborates and exhibits regularly with the galleries Underdogs and This Is Not A White Cube (TINAWC).
RITA RAVASCO
Rita Ravasco was born in Mourão in 1989. A visual artist, she works in illustration, painting, video, stopmotion, drawing, murals and sculpture. As well as scratches, she uses found objects or objects bought at second-hand markets in her work. His creative process works like a factory where there are several employees, each with a different visual expression. His pieces are created by different “I’s”, as if we were identifying several factory operators, even though they are all different, there is a camouflaged connection/line between them that denounces that they were created in the same factory.
Her career includes several group and solo exhibitions, collaborating on illustrations for magazines and newspapers such as Sábado magazine, participating in various editions of the Loures Arte Pública Festival, the Iminente Festival and the Boom Festival, among other challenges.
THECAVER
TheCaver is a Portuguese artist, born in Lisbon in 1983 and living in Porto. Left-handed, he was addicted to drawing from an early age, until he discovered Graffiti in 1997/98, which really pushed him into the streets.
With a short 10-year career in graphic design, his letters quickly turned into large, well-designed murals. Inspired by subcultures such as punk rock, skateboard graphics, tattoos and graffiti, his painting concepts range from character sketches to large and complex enigmatic compositions.
The artist also creates in his studio, especially in the streets and on all kinds of scales and surfaces. Paintings, sculptures and commercial projects are what can be seen on a regular basis.
VANESSA BARRAGÃO
Vanessa Barragão (b. 1992; Faro, Portugal) is a talented artist whose passion for the environment has led her on a remarkable journey into the world of textile art. She discovered her love for textiles and handicrafts at a young age, laying the foundations for a unique artistic career that harmoniously integrates art with sustainability. After completing his degree in Fashion Design at ULisboa, Barragão became aware of the highly polluting and wasteful fashion industry. In an attempt to get away from that world, he looked for opportunities in textile factories, where he found a position in a handmade carpet factory. It was at this point that he realized the amount of waste and residue generated by mass production. Having learned traditional weaving methods at an early age from her grandmothers, Barragão began experimenting with waste – mainly wool and other synthetic fibers – and eventually arrived at the textile installations for which she is known, pushing her to embark on a pioneering path of ecologically conscious creativity.
Recognized for her exceptional talent, Barragão has collaborated with renowned environmental organizations, combining her art with powerful messages about climate change and the importance of conservation. Her installations have left an indelible impact, provoking reflection and inspiring action among viewers. As her reputation grows, Vanessa often sees her work featured in prestigious art publications and magazines, gaining widespread recognition for her contribution to the world of sustainable art. Barragão remains dedicated to her vision of art as a means for positive change. With her future projects, she aspires to reach new heights, spreading her message of environmental awareness to a wider audience and leaving a lasting legacy as an ecologically conscious artist who redefines the boundaries of textile art.
