Solo show at PRIOR Art Space, Berlin, Germany. 

7th May to 29th May

Works created in CUPERIOR RESIDENCY, Feb/Mar 2022

The residency work is strongly inspired on the texts by Michel de Certeau – General introduction to the practice of everyday life and on the book “Handbook of Tirany”, by Theo Deutinger. 

Michel de Certeau in his essay talks about the idea of strategies vs tactics (society and institutions vs users) as a vehicle for “freedom”. For this show I focus on objects such as a police barrier (given to me by the Berlin Police department) used to control crowds during demonstrations, which are stored in some public visible spaces of the city; pipes from buildings water drainage systems; barbed wire; emergency golden blankets that I collected in Lesbos in 2016, during my volunteer period in that Greek Island (these blankets were all used by refugees/migrants upon their arrival to Lesbos (Europe).

My actions with these important context objects are framed with the idea of ‘tactics’ as de Certeau conceptualizes in his writings. I have dismantled the police barrier and repurposed it, as well with the pipes used for drainage; painted a wall fence that exists between the border of Ceuta/Melilla (which is the closest border fence to Lisbon, the city where I am based), inspired by the book by Theo Deutinger, where he compiles most of the border fences that exist around the world and also mechanisms to control the population, from police tactics to plants or drones; used a full emergency golden blanket from Lesbos, to paint two views of skulls, transformed on photoshop with the style of the Obama poster of 2008, “Hope”, by Shepard Fairey; and others.

I play with the meaning of all these objects and propose new approaches for the future.