Exhibition brings together 28 works by eight contemporary artists in Serralves

There are eight artists, all born after 1984, who each have a single room dedicated to their work at Serralves: Aria Dean, Cameron Rowland, Nour Mobarak, P. Staff, Sara Deraedt, Tarik Kiswanson and Hugo Flores and Paulo Mariz, two artists from Porto.

Coming from Lebanon, the United States of America, Sweden, Palestine, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Greece, the artists propose to "explore how matter and objects are vehicles of social, historical and emotional meanings", according to the summary distributed to the press today during a guided tour by the director of the Serralves Museum, Philippe Vergne.

Also curator of a collective exhibition, the first that this space has hosted since 2017, Philippe Vergne said today that some artists created specific works for this exhibition and that the decision to dedicate a room to each of them was due to "the desire for each work to breathe".

During the visit, the director explained the title of the exhibition, reminding us that by "material evidence" we mean the element that contributes to proving an important fact in a trial "and, although this exhibition is not, naturally, a trial, it brings together a group of artists who explore materiality with an intention".

Philippe Vergne highlighted works that refer to themes such as war, displacement, violence and migration, among others, emphasizing, when pointing to a piece that invites the visitor to reflect on pollution, "that several elements are based on memory or on the idea that [one cannot] ignore what surrounds one, no matter how romantic [one is]".

Speaking to Lusa, Filipa Loureiro, coordinator of the exhibition, said that this project began to be produced two years ago, a process that dictated the selection of eight artists with different backgrounds and geographies, but who often meet through common work and friendships.

"This is an exhibition by a group of artists that is almost a kind of small biennial. Each of the works, despite being uniquely different, complement each other in this set with materials or details that are constructed and that create this joint and collective exhibition that addresses common themes", said Filipa Loureiro.

The coordinator added to Lusa that "these works politically question what history, the past, the political, economic and social relationship with the different spheres of power were".

With several languages ​​such as installation, sculpture, painting and video, "Provas Materiais" results, in Filipa Loureiro's opinion, from a "very dense" research work, being necessary, she added, "to explore and unravel each of the works layer by layer to reach the different spheres with which they deal and which they question".

The exhibition will be on display until November 16th.