More people have been to Portugal than I have

Mixed media exhibition

2022

More people have been to Portugal than I have is an exhibition in which I expanded the performance Über alles, that I presented in late 2021.

I consider nationalism as an ideology endemic to the modern state, frequently ignored as such and therefore naturalised by the whole political specturm.

In this exhibition I also wanted to reflect on the construction and on the contemporary forms of Portuguese-flavoured nationalism by assembling and organising a vast amount of references – oftentimes very culturally centred ones – that form the basis of the research I did for the performance Über alles.

It includes images, texts, statistics, and notes ranging from Guinness World records, to beauty contests, to sportsmen in accidentally homoerotic poses, to personal Whatsapp messages, to studies about social mobility, and plenty of comments on Youtube videos and Reddit threads that read as unintencional poetry.

It is also an attempt to materialise the immaterial and to pass from the “black box” of the theatre to the “white cube” of the gallery, and evoking the making process and the memories of the performance, as well as to organise my own reflections and thoughts.

Exhibition

More people have been to Portugal than I have

Solo exhibition

Kubik Gallery, Porto

July – September, 2022

Exhibition views / Photo credits

Kubik Gallery, Porto / Carlos Azeredo Mesquita