News
'Cartografía de la errancia como resistencia' , curating an artistic residency in Chihuahua (Mex), December 2024.
I am happy to announce that together with the other members of ColectivoArslonga (www.colectivoarlonga.com) , I will be taking over the artistic direction of the artistic residency ‘Cartografía de la errancia como resistencia’ at t Centro Cultural Quinta Carolina, Chihuahua (Mexico), within the framework of the 2024 Government Programme for Art and Culture of the State of Chihuahua.
In an area such as Chihuahua, marked by the trajectories of migration and the constant relationship with the border with the United States, what sense can it make to recall the practice of wandering as a possible origin of artistic creation?
Participatory filmmaking project with rural communities engagement in Manica and Tete provinces (Mozambique), June / October 2024.
In June, July and August 2024 I will travel around central Mozambique to the districts of Macossa, Gondola and Moatize to make three participatory films with three groups of adolescents from these rural communities. The films will be the product of three participatory filmmaking workshops lasting three weeks each. This experience has as its focus intergenerational dialogue within rural communities in central Mozambique particularly affected by post-war reintegration problems.
Performing the threshold: towads a heuristics of landscape through photography, a speech during the conference 'Landscape and the imaginary' at Thubinghen University, College of fellows, 20 June 2024.
On June 20, 2024 I'll be take part in this conference. Here's the abstract of my speech.
A “landscape” photograph reaches out to its viewer. A portion of space, delimited by four lines, reveals a secret relationship between elements, discovered by someone else, seeking co-creation. The spectator performs a threshold to access a generative exchange with this totality of signs, in an implicit dialogue with what lies outside the frame. The subject of this speech addresses precisely that intangible part of events and atmospheres which remains outside the frame and that, in some way, precedes it. What is the history of a landscape photograph before it separates from its author to take on a new life in the viewer-artwork- display device1 triangulation? What existential struggle does a photographer perform in order to“encounter” a landscape, indulging in a complex weaving of transits, detours, games of events and dramaturgies in which walkscape, mindscape and landscape constantly interpenetrate? The path can be prefigured as an infinite series of thresholds, redrawn by the continuous body-world interaction and the response to symbols encountered along the way. Could it be argued that the horizontality of this wandering hides an experience capable of reformulating depth psychology from a perspective in which depth is encountered in the object and images that the world offers us? Leaving the answer to each of these questions open, this speech aims to share a personal heritage of facts, practices, intuitions and urgencies that accompany a photographer before transforming a landscape into its inevitable reproduction, filtering landscape photography through the prism of heuristics rather than its exegesis.
Curating a give-back event in the 'Jardim dos Madgermanes' in Maputo on behalf of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, May 22, 2024.
On behalf of the Berlin HKW, I am very pleased to organize a return event ' of the 'Echoes of Brotherland' exhibition held in Berlin, and especially the debate 'Respekt und Anerkennung: Im Austauch mit dem politischen Aktivismus ehemalinger mosambikanischer Vetragsarbeiter un Aktivist innen in the DDR'. For one day we turned this public space into a cinema where all former workers could view a film of the debate that took place at the HKW and a tour of the exhibition. It was a very important happening for the community which contributed in re-signifying their relationship with Germany. Rather than accessing the news about Germany through hearsay or through delegations, the former workers were able to watch the exhibition about them through the filmic image and experience the intensity of the political debate on their case taking place in Germany. After the screening we had a QA and a small debate, and then engage in conviviality.
Curating 'Perdido/Achado' an exhibition for inmates of Boane Juvenile Correctional Institution (MZ), Opening May 15, 2024.
I am honored to have curated an exhibition for the inmates of the Boane Youth Correctional Institution, selecting and assembling material that was produced by the participants of the Expression Through Photography workshop I conducted in 2022. The exhibition takes the form of an itinerary between some of the shots taken by the participants and some pages of their photo diary. I am very thankful to the participants for having decided to share those intimate, poetic pages with the rest of the inmates.
After having experienced the first contact with the evocative power of images (Section I - Lost/Found), the participants began an exploration of the pure and simple act of seeing and being seen (Sections 2 and 3 - Inside/Outside and Seeing Yourself) and then accessed the experience of self-narrative through figures and metaphors (Sections 4 and 5 - Metaphor and Narrating Yourself). The journey ended when the practice of photography became a vehicle for expression, liberation and play (Section 6 - Sky).
Obviously, the first stop of the exhibition will be in the Boane Youth Penitentiary, where the workshop took place. It will then be transported to a series of locations in Maputo, where the city community can finally become aware of who the inmates of the Maputo Youth Institute are.
Opening event of the exhibition 'Echoes der bruderländer' at HKW, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, March 1, 2024, h 18:00.
After several years researching the return of Mozambican workers to their homeland, the research team at HKW Berlin invited me to join the team, for the exhibition 'Echoes of the Brother Countries” curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. My material will be convoyed in two photo-installations within the research cluster in the main hall and at the Beatriz Nascimento hall.
'The City and the Night' a lecture on the iconography of night in photography at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Faculty of Urban Planning. November 22, 2023
'The City and the Night' is a lecture designed for the Sociology of Environment and Territory course of the Faculty of Urban Planning at Turin Polytechnic University. It is a journey through the iconography of the night through some photographic various photographic authors. Through their work the night is converted into a space of utopia where new alliances take plese, overturning conditionings and segregations that occur in daytime urbanism and result from flaws in its design.
Final performance of the project 'Il passo' @ Triennale Milano, November 16, 2023.
The final event open to all will be held on Nov. 16, in two performances, at the Milan Triennale Theater. This performance will be the epilogue of an artistic residency for which 15 artists, including myself, were selected to work in a multidisciplinary way on the theme of the relationship between 'the one and the multiple', under the artistic direction of Romeo Castellucci and Silvia Rampelli and with the collaboration of several personalities from different artistic fields.
Premiere of the short film 'Barrigas' at Teatro Scala Maputo (MZ), October 12, 2023.
I am glad to invite you to the roof top of Teatro Scala Maputo for the screening of 'Barrigas' in partnership with AICS.
Panelist at Dezentrabild.net lauching @ Volksbühne, Berlin, June 22, 2023.
June 22, 8:00 @ Roter Salon at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz, I will be among the panelist for the launching of Dezentralbild.net, an amazing project about private archives of foreign contract workers in ex GDR, carried by Julia Oelkers and Dr.Isabel Eizenbach.
'Outros corpos nossos' is available @ Interkontinental library Berlin (DE), April 2023.
'Outros corpos nossos' is available on November books (UK), January 2023.
You can find the book through www.november-books.com or through IG.
Filming the short documentary film 'Barrigas', November 2022.
Three young women, Rabeca, Julieta and Mariazinha share stories, fears and hopes a few days before giving birth, at "Casa Mãe Espera" in Sussundenga, rebuilt after Cyclone Idai.
Università degli studi di Milano, 'Laboratorio di storia della cultura portoghese 9-19 Maggio', visiting artist lecture/ May 2022.
I'm glad to announce that a talk about my project 'Once were colleagues', will be held during the workshop on the history of Portuguese culture entitled: Olhares sobre a guerra, o 25 de Abril e as independências africanas.
Rotterdam Photo Festival, 18/22 May 2022.
On 18 May the exhibition ‘Human Texture’ opens as part of the Rotterdam PhotoFestival 2022, entitled ‘Planet Human’, during the Rotterdam Art Week, Wilemsplein 85, Rotterdam.
Expression through photography workshop in the Boane Juvenile Penitentiary Institute, Mozambique, end of the journey, April 2022.
Over the course of three months, from December 2021 to March 2022, a group of ten children and minors serving prison sentences in that establishment took part in the Lab. The Lab's journey coincided with a voyage of discovery through the transformative capacity of the photographic medium. From initial perception to the fullness of narration, the participants explored what was immediate because it is visible, to what seemed to be hidden or forgotten because it is far from being expressed.
Documentation work for GALA queer Archive (ZA), April 2022.
Photographic documentation of the 'Vozes do confinamento' project, following the impact of covid 19 on the queer community, on behalf of Gala Archive.
Depth psychology and photography as art of the encounter, a workshop, March 2022.
This workshop organized by the Alfred Adler Institute of Milan is intended for students of the Adlerian school of psychotherapy of the Alfred Adler Institute of Milan, and will be held on March 26th from 9:00 to 17:00.
Outros corpos nossos featured in Africa in the photobook, March 2022.
'Outros corpos nossos' is featured on 'Africa on the photobook', an amazing selection of african photobooks by Ben Krinkewel.
Internazionale magazine (ITA) on 'Outros corpos nossos', February 2022.
I am very happy that 'Outros corpos nossos' is reviewed in the Portfolio section of Internazionale, through the eye of Veronica Daltri.
Daily Maverick (ZA) on Outros corpos nossos, December 2021.
From the serie of articles 'Out in Africa' by Carl Collison.
Outros corpos nossos exhibition, CCMA Maputo, October 21st 2021.
Following the publication of the book 'Outros corpos nossos' we are pleased to announce the inauguration of the exhibition in Maputo, at the CCMA, curated by Marilù Mnapego Namoda. Thanks also to the exhibition architect Ana Raquel Machava. It will be an opportunity to celebrate together with the entire community who co-created this body of work with me and Caio Simoēs de Araújo, who carried on the oral history research.
Hoyerswerda '91 exhibition, Lausitz-Halle, Hoyerswerda, 17 September 2021.
30 years have passed since the persecution of Mozambican workers in the Hoyerswerda Riots of '91. An exhibition was included in the 'Hoyerswerda '91' cultural festival, the result of the work carried out by me and the journalist Julia Oelker on the theme 'Once were colleagues', which brings back to Hoyerswerda the photographs and memories of fifteen Mozambican miners who in that September of '91 had to leave Germany forever.
Outros Corpos Nossos, book launching, Johannesburg (ZA), 30 September 2021.
Outros Corpos Nossos goes to print, September 2021.
I am very excited to announce The photo book ‘Outros corpos nossos - Other bodies of ours’ goes to print, Johannesburg, (ZA) for Mathoko's Books.
Indico Magazine, May 2021, Afric Simone, Cover story.
For the May 2021 issue of Indico Magazine, I am pleased to announce that I had the honour of working with one of the most absurd and iconic characters of my childhood: Afric Simone, a trickster with a thousand lives who has marked the imagination of several generations between Italy, Germany, the UK, Venezuela, even though his incredible story starts in Mozambique. It was one of the most fun encounters of my life, during an afternoon in Berlin what a portrait session should always be.
Publico, P2 (PT) reportage.
Todos protegidos, documentation work and campaign, April 2020, Maputo.
Following the proclamation of a state of emergency for Mozambique on March 31, it was necessary to find a rapid form of intervention to prevent the spread of Covid-19 within the penitentiary institutions. In time, REFORMAR, a civil society organization, proposed to SERNAP, the national service of penitentiary administration, a campaign to collect scraps of fabric donated by civil society and start the production of masks inside at the rate of a fight against time.
Documentation work for GALA queer Archive (ZA) January 2020, Maputo.
During this January 2020 in Maputo, I will document for GALA Archive (Johannesburg) events and visibility activities of a queer activists in Maputo from Transformar.
Photography and the unconscious, a workshop at IPU, International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin.
Can sometimes drifting through the streets of a city be a way of contacting one's unconscious? The city can serve as a mnemonic support for the flaneur walking through it (Hessel, Walking in Berlin) or experience a depth where the outward and the inward overlap. When we make pictures, the images we decide to frame from the stream of our perception can be seen as metaphors of something? Could be, but it's not important to interpret them. A good artist stands on the threshold of this mistery and plays with these images, getting familiar with them and letting them become more consistent.
Unconscious in the Urban Space, a workshop.
I am glad to lead this workshop @StillpointSpaces Berlin, June 1st 2019. Hobrechstrasse 66, Berlin. Book a ticket!
Lamella Exhibition, Berlin May 26th 2019.
I am happy to invite you to the Lamella exhibition @StillpointSpaces Berlin, Hobrechtstrasse 36 Berlin. This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Needles, Lalab and Stillpointspaces. The works and their curator (Leon Brenner) enter into a dialogue about the definition of what is residual what is residual, both in the physical as well as the psychic world, through a transdisciplinary approach where photography and psychoanalysis meet.
