Luís Miguel de Matos (PT)

After the lockdowns and isolation caused by the pandemic, I’ve noticed that my dreams have become more vivid. I’ve drawn pictures based on notes and diagrams of the dreams I created after waking up. Most of the subjects depicted are an explanation of the constructions of the psyche, from eroticism to the interrelationships between the various figures that occupy the unconscious. The drawings reflect on certain archetypes and the possible narratives that are generated in the dream field. Once the graphic language had been created to express the world of the unconscious, new drawings were made from the imagination that depict subjects that, like dreams, occupy me but that I can’t fully understand, such as: the overexploitation of natural resources and environmental concerns, the native peoples of the Americas and their relationship with expansive capitalism, power hierarchies and institutional relationships, etc. As well as looking at dreams from the point of view of psychology, particularly Jungian psychology, I see dreams as mystical revelations in line with some shamanic traditions.

Born in Lagos, in 2009 he completed a five-year degree in Painting – Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. He was a finalist in the international competition at the XVIII Cerveira Biennial, 2015; a semi-finalist at Open Design Italia 2016, in the communication design category; and shortlisted for the Arte Laguna Prize 2017, in the virtual art category. Selected by the curatorial team of the Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Municipal Museum to take part in JCE, Jeune Création Européenne, Biennale de Arte Contemporânea 2017 – 2019. From September 2017 to June 2018, she taught plastic arts to children aged 6 and 7, as an extracurricular activity, at the Santa Maria School in Lagos, Portugal. From 2021 to the present day, she teaches drawing at the Centro de Estudos de Lagos – Universidade Sénior.