Artist statement
In recent years I have developed research and investigation work dealing with the concepts of history, memory, and identity. I usually start from documentary materials or create new documents to establish critical relationships about them in a performative way. I also begin with my biography to frame the research. I was born in Faro, in the Algarve region, which at the end of the 90s still did not have a significant cultural and artistic movement. In this sense, I became a regional migrant by choosing the city of Lisbon as the place to start my university education in the creative field. In Lisbon, I began my approaches to contemporary practices in performing and visual arts. I created my first works and collaborations with different artists in the fields of theater and dance. Several institutions supported my creative work as an emerging artist. But in 2013, I decided – for socio-economic and political reasons – to migrate to Brazil. Awarded with a scholarship from the GDA foundation, I completed dance training with a focus on movement research in Laban. This journey, which seemed to be a momentary departure, became longer.
This migration process presented itself as a transformer for constructing my identity and, consequently, my artistic research. Living in a country with historical connections to mine put me in another position. What place would it occupy in that colonial history, and what historical facts had it assimilated that was incorrect? In this search process, I decided to continue my university research in criticism and artistic experimentation. I did my Master’s in Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, researching the pictorial constructions of the last 500 years and their representations. The theoretical research accompanied the practical study in creating the performance “Alla prima”, shown both in Brazil and Portugal. The contrast between these two perspectives was decisive for thinking that it should continue to investigate the relations between the two countries more deeply. In this sense, I joined the Ph.D. at the same institution as the Master’s, creating in the last four years performances and objects that deal with the migratory process of these two communities, as well as territorial relations that separate them, as is the case of the Atlantic Ocean. These objects sometimes deal with these communities’ direct or indirect participation mirrored in the final objects.
During this journey, I had the opportunity to present my work internationally focused on Latin America and Portugal.
At this stage, I would like to expand international relations on the European continent, encouraging the exchange of ideas and stressing the European South and Global South concepts.