I am an artist, sometimes curator, assistant professor at IADE – Universidade Europeia, in Lisbon, Portugal, and member of its research center UNIDCOM. I obtained my Ph.D. in Art and Design at the University of Porto and my MS in Visual Studies at MIT. I have published, lectured, and presented my work in various international contexts.

I am also interested in collaborating with artists, designers, and colleagues with similar interests, as well as in working with MA or Ph.D. students whose research deep in art & design, art & technology, socially engaged art, women in the arts, and the aftermath of these art practices and ideas in art exhibitions and collections. Feel free to get in touch if you are thinking of pursuing graduate studies or committed to R&D activities.

News

Participating in the European Researchers Night ’24

27 September 2024

Join me and my colleague Susana Pereira in two tours where we present the project Drawing the Science: experimenting intersections between art and the unknown, developed with IADE’s Design students, that takes the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (MUHNAC) as its subject matter.

More info here

Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle opening

7 September 2024

Exhibition curated by me and Maria Luís Neiva Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle: contributions for a reflection about Art and the Internet in Portugal, at CAAA Center for Art and Architecture Affairs, in Guimarães, integrates 14 art projects and documentation related to Portugal’s techno artistic and cultural context.

All welcomed!

More info in the exhibition website and caaa

Participating in EVA LONDON conference

11 July 2024

I will be presenting my study about the interesting case of the Site-Specific online gallery (2002-2007) of the Museu do Chiado – National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Portugal, at the EVA LONDON 2024 international conference organised by the Computer Arts Society (CAS).

More info here

My essay “Net Art, the B side of Digital Art…” is out!

29 May 2024

The book Art, Digital, Academy, MuseuZer0, organized by Miguel Carvalhais and Luísa Ribas, published by Museu Zer0, of which I am so proud to be a part of with the essay “Net Art, the B Side of Digital Art: reflections about its exhibition and collection”, is now available for reading (Portuguese only)!

Dive in here

Participating in Towards Automated Art? conference

24 May 2024

Me and Maria Luís Neiva will be discussing with fellow peers the making of the forthcoming exhibition we are curating Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle: contributions for reflecting about art and the internet in Portugal at the Towards Automated Art? Learning Machines, Human Creativity and Uncertainty International Conference, organised by Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

See program here

Jury at Drawing Award

April 2024

I am member of the jury (first stage) of the 4th edition of the Drawing Award promoted by the Luso-American Development Foundation. This is a wonderful encouragement for mature artists living in Portugal that take drawing as a fundamental aspect of their practice.

More info at FLAD

Lecture at FBAUP in Porto

4 April 2024

I am giving a masterclass at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto about The Concept of Site-Specific and Net Art in Portugal. The lecture reflects about the adoption of the “site-specific” by artists, designers and tech enthusiasts engaged with Net Art in the country, from 1995 onwards.

More info here

My Study about Etheline Rosas in Público Newspaper

19 March 2024

Sérgio C. Andrade published an article, in the national Portuguese newspaper Público, about Etheline Rosas’ role in the development of an institutional culture regarding Modern and Contemporary Art in Brazil and Portugal. The news also highlights the book Women Art Dealers (2024) edited by Veronique Chagnon-Burke and Caterina Toschi, where my study about Rosas is included.

Read here

Emergent Matters Think Tank

6 - 8 November 2023

The Emergent Matters research team, that I am part of, will present the study that systematises the artistic research produced in Portuguese universities, between 2009 and 2022, and how it lead to the tentative arC Artistic Research Collection. The event will take place at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and online.

Project financed by FCT. Reference: 2022.06772.PTDC

More info here

Jury at Ph.D Public Exam, Brazil

27 September 2023

I am member of the Jury of the Ph.D research From the Attic to the Living room: Brazilian Modern Furniture in the 21st Century developed by Fernanda Tozzo at the Design Graduate Program of the School of Architecture and Planning of Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.

Visit FAUUSP

“Who are the Femanoids?” integrates “Performing the Archive”

August 2023
A sample of my Femanoids art project is now part of the Performing the Archive project, created and directed by Paula Parente Pinto. Pinto's enterprise ensures the preservation and activation of the archive of the Portuguese art critic Egídio Álvaro (1937-2020), as well as artworks of the many artists he supported between 1960-2020.

Visit Performing the Archive

Femanoid at Belém Library in Lisbon

10 May - 9 June 2023

I am presenting a series of drawings from my larger art project Femanoids at the Belem Library, a public library housed in an 18th century palace with a reading room named by Ana de Castro Osório (1872-1935), a Portuguese writer, republican and feminist. 11 femanoids joyfully speculate on the situation of women, historically subject to structural processes of dehumanization.

Admission is free

More info at Belém Library and Bibliotecas Municipais de Lisboa

My screenshot in the cover of O Tripeiro magazine

September 2022

I was invited by Francisco Laranjo to do a cover for the century-old magazine O Tripeiro, published by the Comercial Association of Porto, in Portugal. There are various layers in this screenshot, some related to the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP) were I taught for several years, and met amazing artists, students and peers — some of the “New Tripeiros” of Porto.

Table of Contents

Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle (2024)

Group exhibition co-curated with Maria Luís Neiva
at CAAA Center for Art and Architecture Affairs, in Guimarães
7 September – 2 November 2024

Despite the respectability that digital art deserves today, there are still few initiatives that contribute to experiencing art practices related to the internet in Portugal. Net Art in the Bermuda Triangle, contributions to a reflection about art and the internet in Portugal is an exhibition that brings together documents of diverse techno culture events held in the country, since 1995, and art projects created for the internet by Portuguese artists and digital art enthusiasts

Beatriz Albuquerque, Daniel Pinheiro & Annie Abrahams, Pizz Buin, Rui Torres, Susana Mendes Silva, wr3ad1ng d1g1t5, Luísa Ribas & João Cruz, Mário Cameira, Rudolfo Quintas, Alice dos Reis, Miguel Carvalhais & Pedro Tudela & Rodrigo Carvalho, Joana Chicau and Luís Fernandes.

The exhibition includes 3 live performances
at CAAA Black Box by

Joana Chicau Tango for Us Too
7 September*

Miguel Carvalhais, Pedro Tudela and Rodrigo Carvalho 30 x n
12 October*

Luís Fernandes Live Electronics
2 November*

*at 6 pm GMT. These performances will be streamed in caaa’s social media.

Tour by scholar Maria Teresa Cruz
12 October at 4 pm GMT
with ICNOVA-UNL partnership

Talk with Maria Mire, Aida Castro, and Luis Rivero-Moreno
2 November at 4pm GMT, online in caaa’s social media

 

Communication design and Web design by Mariana Rosa

#Exhibition #Net art #Net art in Portugal #Digital art #Everybody working together #CAAA

Artist Book (2024)

I am working on an artist book with the 12 Femanoids embroidered on linen.

Linoleum Drawings (2023)

Linoleum drawings of each of the 12 Femanoid stamped with their name. Scroll down to have a look.

Exhibition (2023)

From 10 May to 9 of June, the Library of Belém hosted my exhibition "Femanoid". It was literally a "stairwell exhibition" where I presented a series of linoleum drawings handmade by me from my broader artistic project with the same name.
The Belém Library is a public library installed in an 18th century palace with a reading room named after Ana de Castro Osório (1872-1935), a Portuguese writer, republican and feminist.

Eleven Femanoids welcomed visitors and the users of this municipal library while speculating with humor about the situation of women, historically subject to structural processes of dehumanization. 

Who are the Femanoids? (2023)

I brought four Femanoids to public during the parade of the 49th anniversary of the 25 of April 1974, at Av. da Liberdade, in Lisboa, Portugal.

All photos by Aida Castro.

Each poster 29,7 x 42 cm, digital print, b/w and color on 80gr. paper.

O Tripeiro (2022)

I was invited by Francisco Laranjo (1955-2022) to do a cover for the century-old magazine O Tripeiro, published by the Comercial Association of Porto, in Portugal. I decided to do a screenshot that includes my website. Bellow a text that helps contextualise my choice for this cover, published in the same issue:

Screenshot of sofiaponte.net, marianarosa.com, headlesswomeninpublic.art, yugahatta.com, quandoeugritoquemmeouve.art,
gustavoromeiro.com.br, auroradoscampos.com
and clairesivier.com on the 2022-08-30 at 13.19.07
for the cover of the September issue of 2022 of O Tripeiro
:

With the popularisation of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, some artists began to distance themselves from traditional modes of creation by working with this apparently more democratic channel of communication as a means of artistic experimentation and affirmation of autonomy, but also as a way to critical reflect on current affairs. Presently, for some artists, cyberspace is an opportunity for creative experimentation, for structured dissemination of their activities without intermediaries, to keep contact up to date, or to prevent abuses of their copyright, but not only. Although the .com domain prevails, aimed mainly at commercial activities, there are increasing records of other types of more ambiguous initiatives, designated as .com, .net, .art, as well as .pt, or .org, for instance. It is in this context that the screenshot presented on the cover of O Tripeiro appears, a reflection of the l’air du temps, of art and of some current art practices.

A screenshot is an image of data displayed on a computer screen, mobile device or game console. The way content appears on a screen depends mainly on the electronic device, the operating system and the version of one’s browser. A screenshot can therefore be useful when one needs to show something that would otherwise be difficult to explain in words, for example reporting an error. By using a screenshot there is less chance of being misunderstood. A screenshot is generally used to record exactly what one is seeing on a screen in order to share with others, have as a reference, archive a web page before an update, or document a moment of a video game competition. The data gathered in this screenshot refers to artists and designers responsible for projects of various kinds. All have in common links, past or present, to the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and the city of Porto, and their online presence mirrors their physical presence in the world.

sofiaponte.net
Artist, assistant professor and researcher.

marianarosa.com
Designer and programmer whose work often explores how design and coding practices relate to each other. She is the author of the website sofiaponte.net.

headlesswomeninpublic.art
Art project by architect and artist Mariana Morais, mapping representations of women in public art in several cities, including the city of Porto.

yugahatta.com
Is an artist whose work speculates on the differences and similarities between artistic and non-artistic concepts.

quandoeugritoquemmeouve.art
Art project by architect and artist Izabel Rosa, about the perception of freedom from the point of view of women in public space in Portugal, but not only.

gustavoromeiro.com.br
Is a designer and artist who develops projects that mix the categories of art and design.

auroradoscampos.com
Is a set designer and artist who has been developing hybrid projects that explore relationships between spatiality and dramaturgy.

clairesivier.com
Is a cultural producer with artistic activity that has contributed to the development of participatory projects focused on marginalized communities.

Femanoids (2022-2024)

This is a series of mix-media works (photography, drawing and performance) that speculates about identity stereotypes and cultural pressures women face daily. Femanoid reflects about how the concept of gender has been changing and, more recently, how has it been subject to such intense controversy. Femanoid is formed by the combination of the noun “fema” and the adjective “humanoid”, the latter used to indicate something that resembles a human. It is also a nonsense name that makes me think about the sometimes redundant meaning-making processes that categorise women’s look, ideas, behaviours and interests.

 

Oceans Trophy (2022)

I designed and produced a trophy for the winner of the Oceans category in the Wiki Loves Earth Portugal 2022 photography contest, organized by Wikimedia Portugal (WMPT), the Portuguese chapter of Wikimedia Foundation.

The trophy is made of two main elements: a medallion of recycled plastic (nylon) part of abandoned fishing nets taken from the Portuguese coast. The center of this medallion is filled with a high relief  shape of a coral also made of recycled plastic. The second element of the trophy is a walnut wood stand. American walnut wood is generally used in exquisite furniture and is much appreciated for its density, strength, veins, and color. This fragment was provided and prepared by Álvaro Cardoso, an expert in wood who collects scraps with which he creates delicate furniture.

The making of this trophy was part of a partnership between WMPT, fablab_lisboa, and Zero p.

Photos: Paulo Andrade
Materials: Polymer and American walnut wood.
Total measurements: 34 cm x 12cm x 4cm.
Weight: 500gr.

 

Winning photos WLE Portugal 2022

Stolen nature series

The Book Dispersed (2017)

group exhibition by Unstable Media 

This international group show curated by Unstable Media established a space for practitioners to come together, read, think, and discuss aspects of contemporary visual culture, i.e., the rich and diverse methods found in books produced by artists. In the 1960´s and 1970´s artists’ books came to be seen as an alternative, democratic platform largely free from commercial and/or institutional control, which could be accessed in the private sphere. With the rapid development of digital technology and the consequent rise of the internet one might have expected the book to have become less relevant as an artistic medium, yet this has not come to pass. That digital technology has made it easier and less costly for artists to produce and distribute their work worldwide is certainly a contributing factor, but given its creative potential, couldn’t the artists’ book also provide a format that not only challenges exhibition norms, but actually expands its horizons?

Unstable Media was founded in 2015 by Ana Carvalho, Margarida Carvalho, Sofia Ponte and paula roush. It is dedicated to the organization of art exhibitions related to digital media, editing, performance, and participation that comment on the complexity of the contemporary moment.

Participants: Beatriz Albuquerque, Patrícia Almeida & David-Alexandre Guéniot, Ana Alvim, Isabel Baraona, Ricardo Basbaum, Stanislav Brisa, Jessica Brouder, Catarina F. Cardoso, Isabel Carvalho, Paulo Catrica, Julie Cook, Ana Efe, Os Espacialistas, Inês M. Ferreira, Ana Fonseca, Lara Gonzalez, Dejan Habicht, Michael Hampton, Teresa Huertas, Andrea Inocêncio, Calum F. Kerr, Sharon Kivland, Tanja Lažetić, Catarina Leitão, Ana Madureira, Fernando Marante, Daniela de Moraes, Eugénia Mussa, Eva-Maria Offermann, Andreia Alves de Oliveira, José Oliveira, Susana Paiva, Tadej Pogacar, Pedro Proença, Carla Rebelo, Eduardo Sousa Ribeiro, Mireille Ribière, Sara Rocio, Ana João Romana & Susana Anágua, Paula Roush, Ana Santos, Manuela São Simão, Kim Svensson, Filipa Valladares & Maria do Mar Fazenda, Francisco Varela, Rodrigo Vilhena, Emmanuelle Waeckerle and Gillian Wylde.

It took place between September 23rd and October 28th 2017 at Casa das Artes and Sput&nik The Window, Porto, Portugal.

media-instaveis.tumblr.com

Posters

 

 

Do it Yourself (2016)

group exhibition by Unstable Media 

This exhibition joins Portuguese speaking artists to focus on the notions of work of art, museum object and participation. We understand that curation has the potential to engage visitors in an experience that challenges their expectations about the representation of art. Thus, we propose that in addition to the instructions that are gathered here, visitors experience different concepts of works of art, showing how the norms and conventions of exhibitions vary in relation to the concept of art in which one is present.

Do it Yourself – Art by Instruction is curated by the art group Unstable Media, founded in 2015 by Ana Carvalho, Margarida Carvalho, Sofia Ponte and paula roush. It is dedicated to the organization of art exhibitions related to digital media, editing, performance, and participation that comment on the complexity of the contemporary moment.

Participants: Lívia Flores, Mónica de Miranda, Daniel Moreira, Susana Pedrosa, Inês Ponte, Patrícia Portela, João Ricardo, paula roush, Luísa Salvador, Susana Mendes Silva, Adriana Tabalipa, Rui Torres e Nuno Ferreira, Marta Wengorovius.

It took place between April 17 to May 21, 2016 at Sput&nik The Window, Porto.

You can read more about the exhibition at Academia. (Portuguese, English and French)

media-instaveis.tumblr.com

Debutants ball series (2014)

The debutante ball is a traditional rite of passage, in certain social classes, to which teens girls are subject. It means that they participate in a party that marks the start of their adult life. It seems an innocent celebration but many times it also means that they are literally thrown to a succession of events that will change their lives in unexpected ways.

Device Medi(t)ation (2012)

A journey of passion, meditation and creativity w/ Joana Mourão 

A temporary urban intervention designed to develop a critical experience of the everyday life of the city of Guimarães, Portugal. The project aims to provide a creative experience of the public realm by questioning models of representation and perception of collective heritage.

Three rotating metal structures – The new stations of the cross – depict a performative relationship with the body in public. All three structures differ in the architecture and context of use, covering a broad spectrum of performers and spectators. Those who pass by or attend each site are challenged to participate and act on the flow that their urban performance generates.

More info at Future Architecture.

Brain series (no date)

Daydreaming in Public (2009)

w/ Tiago Pereira

Daydreaming in Public is a short-film that brings an insight to art boundaries and artists’ participation in contemporary society. It combines the work of artist Sofia Ponte with Tiago Pereira visualist practice. The authors reflect on the role of art in understanding the specific conditions of the emerging 21st century city.

vídeo, color, sound, 9’10’’
Portuguese and English
Subtitles in English
©2009

Nominated for the award Films About Art – Festival Temps D’Images in 2009.

Short-film

Screened at:
Daydreaming Devices in Exhibition, December 2016, School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto
5 1/2 Proposals to Work and Live in the Current Millennium, March 2014, Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem, The Netherlands
Between Document & Fiction 2, March 2013, Marquee Theater, Madison, USA
Between Document & Fiction, 2011, Cinema Passos Manuel, Porto
Filmfest Dresden – International Short Film, 2010, Dresden, Germany
Festival Temps D’Images, October 2009, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
Arminda Exhibition, 2009, Goethe Institute-Portugal, Lisbon

Working Unit (2008, 2014)

This daydreaming device can be used in an individual way but also in a collective playful way. As much as it is perceived for facilitating immediate physical relief, it also supports awaken activities such as reading, writing, and daydreaming. The performative feature of Working Unit, a desk that conceals a red mechanical pillow board inside its tabletop, is released when its user starts turning a hidden knob elevating, at adjustable heights, a comfy pillow that allows rest or sleep.

Daydreaming Devices have various key features: they are both utilitarian and emotional objects; their acceptance depends on the user’s adoption of the visual metaphor they express; they reach their maximum potential when activated in a group of people; they attempt to affect an understanding of the awaked life.

Table with lifting pillow board.
First prototype: Finnish wood table, mechanical gearing, foam and fabric.
Minimum size: 91 x 61 x 73,6 cm
Maximum size: 91 x 61 x 86,3 cm
Second prototype: Beechwood, mechanical gearing, foam and fabric.
Minimum size: 120 x 79,5 x 79,5 cm
Maximum size: 120 x 79,5 x 97 cm

Dreaming Lounge (2007-2008)

This daydreaming device can be used in an individual way but also in a collective playful way. As much as it is perceived for facilitating immediate physical relief, it also supports awaken activities such as reading, writing, and daydreaming. The performative feature of Dreaming Lounge, designed for the reading room of Barker Engineering Library, at MIT, is activated when pulling a handle on the right side of the chair bed, that converts the chair in a bed, while releasing a blue canapé protecting the user’s upper body from exterior elements such as light and sound.

Daydreaming Devices have various key features: they are both utilitarian and emotional objects; their acceptance depends on the user’s adoption of the visual metaphor they express; they reach their maximum potential when activated in a group of people; they attempt to affect an understanding of the waked life.

Convertible chaise-lounge with canapé. Wood, 1 passengers seat from a GMC car, various mechanical gearing, foam and fabric.

Minimum size: 89 x 101 x 180 cm
Maximum size: 89 x 125 x 180 cm

Daydreaming Devices (2007-2014)

I initiated this project during my studies at the Visual Arts Program (VAP), current Art, Culture and Technology Program (ACT), at the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006-2008), USA. Under the umbrella of the concept of Daydreaming in Public I have created participatory art and design objects that mostly stage sleep and rest in public. They are praising public space as one of the prime sites for Daydreaming Together, construct and communicate world views, in ways that aim to amplify our understanding of the waken life.

 

This art project is featured in the book
Interrogative Design (2024) edited by Ian Wojtowicz
and published by MIT Press

Photomaton (2010)

Portraits of João dos Santos w/ Tiago Pereira

This video-documentary gathers documentation and testimonies related to the thought and activity of Portuguese psychiatrist João dos Santos (1913-1987). It explores sound and visual language to create an audiovisual document that is also an artwork. Inspired by the radio programmes authored by psychiatrist João Sousa Monteiro and João dos Santos, and broadcasted by Rádio Comercial in the 1980s, the film breaks down key concepts on child development and society, constant interests of João dos Santos. The video has a documental character, because it is about a man, and an artistic character because it is a product of culture, that reflects on various aspects of the human condition.

Video, color, sound, 58’
Portuguese
Rádio Televisão de Portugal and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
©2010

Video-documentary

Screened at:
(A)Mostra Filmes e Ciência, May 2013, Pavilhão do Conhecimento, Lisbon
DOCLisboa – VIII International Film Festival, October 2010, Cinema Londres, Lisbon
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, May 2010, Lisbon (premiere)

 

While Robert Morris is Asleep (2005)

A serie of photographs taken at a vacant lot in the periphery of Lisbon, that represent some of the overlapping values produced by the fast changes that was being felt at the time in Portugal, on the verge of the opening of the first IKEA store in the country.
The landscape is populated by a female dreamy like character who embodies the male character of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) a restless young adult looking for love while overcoming all sorts of architectural forms and beasts. This work also pays homage to conceptual artist Robert Morris, who delve so well the idea of theatricality.

Performer Inês Tanqueiro.

Dream #1:
B/W prints on paper, 21 x 15 cm each.
Dream #2:
B/W digital prints on transparent PEGT, 100 x 70 cm each.
Dream #3:
B/W prints on paper, 21 x 15 cm each.
Dream #4:
Color digital print on paper, 100 x 70 cm.

Exhibited at:
Academy of Arts of Ponta Delgada, Azores
Cirurgias Urbanas, Porto

 

Shipwreck (2005)

w/ José Carlos Teixeira

This site-specific video-installation reflects on the emotional states of fragility, isolation, and solitude. Two video-projections, one of a woman and another of a man in wet clothes diametrically opposed to one and other, representing the space of exhibition, the Sala do Veado (deer room) at the Museum of Natural History of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. The images are mirroring each other and bringing to the center of the room the visitor and the psychological density of the video characters entangled on the borders between reality and fiction.

Vídeo-installation
13’47’’ loop, color, sound.

Also exhibited at:
8 ème Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, Grand Hall de La Vilette, Paris
Arts Academy of Ponta Delgada, Azores

 

I was one hour quiet and one hour silent (2001)

Site-specific audio-visual installation at Gás Rápido warehouse, Porto.

I experiment with the concept of sculptural production beyond its most obvious materiality. At the time, this warehouse had several orange gas canisters stored in metal structures placed in an open space surrounded by trees, wind, birds and a creek. I created a soundtrack combining sounds of gas leaking and burning gas in a repetitive minimalist way. This sound could be accessed through three audio stations placed along the main metal structure. In this circumstances visitors were invited to experiment samples of the concept of “natural” and of the concept of “artificial”.
The artwork explores the tension between a seemingly harmless landscape, such as the one physically surrounding this warehouse, and the invisible contained gas ready and waiting for an opportunity to burn.

Sound-installation
7’11’’ sound loop.

Documentation of this artwork was included at:
Belas Artes em Erasmus, group exhibition curated by José Carlos Teixeira and Cristina Regadas at Galeria Municipal, Biblioteca Almeida Garrett, Porto, 2002.

#Sound art #Site-specific #Sculpture

Self-Portrait (2001)

This self-portrait offers an insight into the understanding of my early 20’s, a suspended building with several seemingly antagonistic chambers. This object has a three-dimensional quintessence difficult to define in a permanent way. It is a drawing project that also contributes to the endless problematic of identity issues through self-representation.

From image 1 to 4: digital prints, 50 x 50 cm each.
Image 5: digital print, 15 x 10 cm.
Image 6 to 8: Artist book made with cardboard and digital print on tracing paper, 41 x 52 x 1,5 cm.

Drawings and Illustrations

Drawing is one of the things that really inspires me. I experiment, depict details, turn around ideas and ruminate in thoughts. I see things through different lenses. It makes me look at the familiar in refreshing ways. I enjoy so much the time I spend drawing. It is never time wasted.

Teaching

Over the years I have designed and taught a number of graduate and undergraduate courses in Art and Design degrees. You may find a sample on the side (or bellow). Email me if you have any inquiries.

Graduate Courses

  • Research Methodology

    Master in Design and Advertising. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE) Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal, from 2021-2022.

  • Art, Communication and Visual Culture

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2016-2020.

  • Painting Seminars

    Master in Fine Arts. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2016-2017.

  • History and Theory of Painting

    Master in Fine Arts. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2015-2017.

  • Current Art Ideas and Practices

    Master in Fine Arts. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2014-2020.

  • History and Theory of Image

    Master in Image Design. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2012-2013.

Undergraduate Courses

  • Sociology of Art

    Design Degree. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE)  – Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, since 2021.

  • Art and Contemporary Culture

    Design Degree. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE) – Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, since 2020.

  • Art, Culture and Communication

    Global Design Degree. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE) – Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, 2020-2021.

  • Drawing and Visual Communication

    Global Design Degree. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE) – Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, since 2020.

  • Drawing and Visual Communication – Analytical Drawing

    Creative Technology Degree. School of Design, Technology and Communication (IADE) – Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, 2020-2023.

  • Theory of Perception

    Fine Arts Degree. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2017-2020.

  • History of Contemporary Art

    Fine Arts Degree. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2011-2020.

  • Digital Aesthetics

    Fine Arts Degree. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2011-2016.

  • Research Methodology for Fine Arts - Sculpture

    Fine Arts Degree. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2011-2016.

  • Contemporary Art

    Fine Arts Degree. School of Fine Arts, University of Porto, 2011-2013.

Supervisions – PhD degrees

  • Scenography in recombination: a study on the thresholds between materiality and fiction by Aurora dos Campos 

    PhD in Fine Arts, University of Porto w/ FCT grant SFRH/BD/05918/2020 (co-supervision)
    ongoing

Supervisions – Master degrees

  • Power in Transit: About Women in Public Space by Izabel Rosa

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository

  • Disseminating Human Echolocation through Public Art by Gustavo Romeiro

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository | Website

  • Fantasy and Internalization of Daily Life Experiences: a conceptual approach to sculpture by Yuga Hatta

    Master in Fine Arts, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository | Website

  • Afrofuturism & the Present: an (auto)ethnographic journey to walking interviews with black women arts practitioners in Porto by Claire Sivier

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository | Website

  • Book Object and Life Stories: Essay on South American immigrant women in the city of Porto by Tamires Mazzo

    Master in Graphic Design and Editorial Projects, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto (co-supervision)

    Digital repository

  • Headless Women and Other Events. Routes for public art in Porto by Mariana Morais

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository | Website

  • Dramaturgies of the Everyday. Speculations on the fictional dimension of the real by Aurora dos Campos

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository | Website

  • Sensing the Senses. Strategies to intensify the sensorial experience through design and art in urban space by Eduardo Pedreiro

    Master in Art and Design for the Public Space, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository

  • Rubber Women: Stamp workshop and collaborative zine as a dialogue space between drawing and female representations by Gabriela César

    Master in Drawing and Printing Techniques, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto

    Digital repository

  • Adding and Subtracting in Painting: A dialectic of chromatic construction by Daniela Pinheiro

    Master in Painting, School of Fine Arts, University of Porto (co-supervision)

    Digital repository

Writings

#contemporary art #art and design #art and technology #functional art #net art in Portugal #interrogative design #cyberfeminism #art exhibitions #art collections #musealization #art made in Portugal #museu do chiado #map of public art of Porto #women in the fine arts #etheline rosas #alice jorge #daniel silvestre da silva #michael rakowitz #amy franceschini #krzysztof wodiczko #ângela ferreira #fernando lanhas #joana bc #carla rebelo #jorge vieira #izabel rosa #andré martins #rudolfo quintas #daniel pinheiro #lia #miguel carvalhais

Net Art and the missing percent at traditional museums of art in Portugal

Academic essay, in Proceedings of EVA London 2024

I reflect about the absence of Net Art in traditional museums of art in Portugal. I present the interesting case of Museu do Chiado – the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) first website and the online gallery Site- Specific created along with it, in the early 2000s. I then provide a context to the initial technoculture environment in the country and problematise the “gap of institutional invisibility” that the only interactive and generative artwork commissioned by the museum has fallen.

Read more at EVA London 2024.

Etheline Isaac Chamis Rosas

Encyclopedic entry, in Dictionary of Who's Who in Portuguese Museology, 2022 (2019)

This encyclopedic article is about museologist Etheline Isaac Chamis Rosas, who contributed to the birth of a public institutional frame for the exhibition and collection of contemporary art in Porto. It is part of an e-book that provides a comprehensive overview of museologists working in different scientific typologies in Portugal. The publication joins essays about the professionals who developed their activity from the 18th century to 1960s.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Hypotheses of a further away infinite: the FBAUP and Porto

Essay, in magazine Crónicas das Artes – Contemporânea, 2018

Curator, and editor of this magazine issue, Antonia Gaeta, proposed to a few experts to consider the concept of “Hypothesis”. I organised some ideas about the relationships between the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto and the city of Porto, formulating the hypothesis, and demonstrating it, that both have benefited from each other’s action in an increasing way.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese and English)

Credulous map, cruel reality, woman artist

with Mariana Morais. Essay, in Jornal Punkto, 2018

This essay focuses on the Public Art Map of Porto, published in July 2017. This printed map distributed for free by its promoter, the Porto City Council, brings together a significant set of sculptures, monuments, panels, and murals installed since the 19th century. Given that mapping any dimension of reality is often a challenge, what portions of the city of Porto do we see represented here? What value systems does this map seek to organise? This reflection problematizes the reduced participation of women artists in the Porto’s public art scene and hopes to contribute to a questioning of the presumed neutrality of this type of documents.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Unstable Media, constructions and disruptions

with Margarida Carvalho and Ana Carvalho. Essay in Portuguese Small Press Yearbook 2017

Unstable Media is an art group that acts through variable means subjected to disappearance. The group focus on contemporary art practices, the classes each member prepares and teaches (we are all university lecturers) and the various projects they take part in.

As a group, our activity focuses on developing participatory art and curatorial strategies, seeking not only to generate but also to investigate the complexity of these relationships. Our starting point calls for the study of exhibition, documentation, and archive models.  To this day we have been able to take advantage of our different viewpoints constructively.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese, English and French)

Functional Art on Display in the Age of Technoculture: Reflections on the Demodernisation Process of the Museum Context

Academic essay, in Conference Proceedings of the International Conference Public Art in the Digital Creativity Era, 2017 

This essay reflects on the exhibition of Functional Art in the technoculture era. Functional Art is an art segment related to the Socially Engaged Art phenomenon, a more recent typology of Public Art. Technoculture refers to the wide implementation of the digital technological phenomenon to the activities that surround us. The way Functional Art brings together various art practices, and the unstable nature of the artworks produced as museum objects, seem to be dominant reasons for creating challenges to conventional display.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Contemporary (public) art in museums

Academic essay, in Conference Proceedings of the International Conference Musealization Processes, 2015

This essay focus on the transfer of meanings between works of art in their original iteration and as museum objects. To reflect on what such displacement implies, I bring together concepts of public art and discuss ideas about the institutional framework of an object of art. Focusing on the work of art paraSITE (1998-ongoing) by Michael Rakowitz, based on a portable shelter for homeless people distributed across several cities in his home country, and subsequently presented in various museological contexts, this article shows how the musealization of contemporary (public) artworks requires the design of contextualization strategies from the museum of art curatorial team. This argument is developed by discussing the strategies used in the exhibition Beyond green: towards a sustainable art (2005) curated by Stephanie Smith, where paraSITE was one of the works displayed.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

How does street art survive in museums?

Academic essay, in Conference Proceedings of the International Conference Street Art and Urban Creativity, 2014

paraSITE is an artwork by Michael Rakowitz, that consists of a portable shelter for homeless people that has been distributed to over 30 people in several cities in the USA, since 1997, and has been presented in temporary exhibitions since 1999. I use this political work of art to discuss my current understanding of how complex is the (re)presentation of works of art created for the public space at temporary exhibitions in museums of art.

Read more at Academia.

The drawing of Daniel Silvestre da Silva in his solo show Orbital Panorama 1998-2013 at Sput&Nik The Window

Essay, in Rua de Baixo, 2013

Panorama Orbital: 1998-2013 is an exhibition that has a retrospective mood. This essay describes some of the nuclei of the many drawings by Daniel Silvestre da Silva. Considering that displaying is not a simple and uncompromising action, in this exhibition one can meditate on hierarchies, relationships and narrative structures of what is being shown, replicated, and observed.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Alice was awaken

Essay, in Rua de Baixo, 2013

This essay is my contribution to the dissemination of the work of Portuguese artist Alice Jorge (1924-2008), by the way of the exhibition Alice Jorge – Traces, Echoes and Revelations at the Museu do Neorealismo, in Vila Franca de Xira. It is based on a brief overview of some segments of Jorge career. The essay is aimed at those who are unfamiliar with the artist’ practice.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

About a state of transition

Essay, in Artecapital, 2007

An essay about the project “Maison Tropicale” by Ângela Ferreira at the Portuguese Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, in 2007. Ferreira’s exhibition consisted of a large sculptural object in aluminum, wood and iron complemented by a set of photographs of Jean Prouvé’s project Maison Tropicale installed inside the Fondaco Marcello. The sculptural object defines a penetrable space which seems to evoke a kind of container ship that has not delivered what it should have, leaving open the paths through which one transits from colonialism to a work of art, from a house to an artefact, from Africa to the Western world.

Read more at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Texts for Exhibitions

    The textile heritage in Guimarães and Carla Rebelo’s site-specific sculpture

    Carla Rebelo's exhibition at CAAA Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitectura, Guimarães 2022

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

    Tangent orbits

    Carla Rebelo's exhibition at Project Room Sput&nik The Window, Porto 2022

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

    An experimental reflection on the work of Joana BC

    at Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitetura, Guimarães 2021  

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

    A cabinet of gestures

    Carla Rebelo's exhibition at Galeria Diferença, Lisboa 2020

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

    The sea is a living thing and it does not speak (exhibition title)

    Rui Inácio's exhibition at Galeria Quadrum, Lisboa 2017  

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

    Drawing circumventions

    Rui Inácio's exhibition at Sput&Nick The Window, Porto 2015  

    PDF (Portuguese Only)

Books

author
co-author
editor
co-editor

Exhibiting and Collecting Interrogative Design

Book chapter, 2024

This essay reflects about the processes of converting Interrogative Design into museum object in an era where the role of museums of art is changing. Considering that one of the purposes of The Homeless Vehicle by Krzysztof Wodiczko is to establish a performative space between passers-by and users, how to display the ephemeral aspects that bear witness to its use?

Book titleInterrogative Design
Editor: Ian Wojtowicz
Authors: Dora Apel, Dan Borelli, Rosalyn Deutsche, Harrell Fletcher, Pete Ho Ching Fung, Dana Gordon, Sara Hendren, Garnet Hertz, Sohin Hwang, Ekene Ijeoma, Marisa Morán Jahn, Mark Jarzombek, Jaekyung Jung, Sung Ho Kim, Jean-Baptiste Labrune, Pia Lindman, Ani Liu, Andrew Todd Marcus, Matthew Mazzotta, Alex Milton, Max Mollon, Mariana Morais, Antoni Muntadas, Gauri Nagpal, Maria Niro, Ginger Nolan, Robert Ochshorn, Adam Ostolski, Sofia Ponte, Gustavo Romeiro, Natalia Romik, Warren Sack, Kirk Savage, Nitin Sawhney, Sanjit Sethi, Samein Shamsher, James Shen, Carl Solander, Richard Streitmatter-Tran, Orkan Telhan, Bruce M. Tharp, Stephanie M. Tharp, Zenovia Toloudi, Marek Wasilewski, Lani Watson, Sampson Wong, and Ben Wood.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 978-026-204-865-1
336 pages

More info at MIT Press.

Net Art, the B Side of Digital Art: Reflections about its Exhibition and Collection

Book chapter, 2024

This essay is part of my ongoing study about net art in Portugal. I reflect about the absence of net art made by Portuguese artists on the channels available in the country for its memory and future enjoyment. The book brings together several topics related to digital art discussed by diverse academics and experts.

Book title: Arte, Digital, Academia, Museu Zer0
Editors: Miguel Carvalhais and Luísa Ribas
Authors: Miguel Carvalhais; Liliana Coutinho; Sofia Ponte; Gilbertto Prado; Luísa Ribas; Luis D. Rivero-Moreno; Mirian Tavares; Pedro Alves da Veiga.
Publisher: Museu Zer0
ISBN: 978-989-9049-70-3
178 pages

More info at Museu Zer0.
(Portuguese Only)

Etheline Rosas: a Modern Art Conservator, an Art Dealer, and Museologist

Book chapter, 2024

This essay focuses on Etheline Rosas’s contribution to the collection and exhibition of Modern Art in S. Paulo, Brazil, and later in Porto, Portugal. The book brings together many interesting case studies of galleries run by women who also devoted their lives to the promotion of contemporary art at large.

Book title: Women Art Dealers. Creating Markets for Modern Art, 1940–1990
Editors: Véronique Chagnon-Burke and Caterina Toschi
Authors: Christina Brandberg; Antonella Camarda; Carlotta Sylos Calò; Carlotta Castellani; Adelaide Duarte; Véronique Chagnon-Burke; Alice Ensabella; Federico Freschi & Lara Koseff; Francesca Gallo; Elena Korowin; Luigia Lonardelli; Lisa Parolo; Sofia Ponte; Pietro Rigolo; A. Deirdre Robson; Ilaria Schiaffini; Isabella Seniuta; Caterina Toschi; Doris Wintgens.
Publisher: Bloomsbury (Contextualizing Art Markets Collection)
ISBN: 978-135-029-245-1
316 pages

More info at Bloomsbury.

Quando eu Grito Quem me Ouve: aspects on Cyberfeminism and Cyberscreams

Book chapter with Izabel Rosa, 2023

This essay reflects about architect Izabel Rosa free-style blog quandoeugritoquemmeouve.art as an instance of cyberfeminism. Since it was made public, in June 2022, it has received various interactions, some of which indicate that the internet continues to ratify many of the heteronormative power structures that one recognises in “real” space.

Book title: Cross Media Arts: Social Arts and Collaboration
Editors: Paula Reaes Pinto, António Gorgel Pinto and Sérgio Vicente
Authors: Katie Adams; Ramon Santana de Aguiar; Susana Barreto; Noemia Iglesias Barrios; Hugo Cruz; Helena Elias; Vera Fritsche; Eduardo L. Freitas; Alistair Fuad-Luke; Renata Gaspar; Paulo Lameiro; Claúdia Lima; Nuno Martins; Paula Miranda; Jessy Medernach; Ticiano Nemer; Inês Brás Oliveira; Eliana Penedos-Santiago; Sofia Ponte; Tiago Porteiro; Matteo Pra Mio; Izabel Rosa; Tiago Mota Saraiva; Fátima Gonçalves da Silva; Katie Taylor; Sérgio Vicente
Publisher: Editora Caleidoscópio
ISBN: 978-989-658-793-2
286 pages

More info at ACADEMIA.

How Jorge Vieira’s Sculpture found Public Space between 1980 and 2000

Book chapter, 2021 

This essay is part of the exhibition catalogue Jorge Vieira: Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner. It brings together aspects of Portuguese artist Jorge Vieira (1922-1998) contemporary sculpture in public space between 1980 and 2000, and reflects on his contributions to public art in Portugal.

Book title: Jorge Vieira: Monumento ao Prisioneiro Político Desconhecido
Editors: Leonor Oliveira and Paula Loura Batista
Authors: Leonor Oliveira; Paula Loura Batista; Paula Barreiro López; Sofia Ponte
Publisher: Museu do Neorealismo / Câmara Municipal de Vila Franca de Xira
ISBN: 978-989-531218-1-8
150 pages

More info at CM VFX.
(Portuguese Only)

Transforming Functional Art into Museum Object

Book, 2020

This book studies the exhibition and collection of functional art by museums of art. Filling a gap in the field of Museum Studies the research takes for analysis three artworks and each social life: The Homeless Vehicle (1988) by Krzysztof Wodiczko, paraSite (1998) by Michael Rakowitz and Victory Gardens+ (2007) by Amy Franceschini.

Author: Sofia Ponte
Publisher: Editora Caleidoscópio and Direção Geral do Património Cultural
ISBN: 978-989-658-654-6
190 Pages

More info at Património Cultural.
(Portuguese Only)

Body, Space, Matter

Book co-editor, 2020

The book joins essays by artists and/or researchers whose PhD research relates to the Body, Space, Matter lectures with Eliana Sousa Santos, Miguel Bonneville, Claire Santa Coloma, Cristiana Felgueiras and Hugo Oliveira, between 2018 and 2020, at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.

Editors: Rute Rosas and Sofia Ponte
Authors: Constança Babo; Bruno Ministro; Paula Neves; Sofia Ponte; Rute Rosas; Ana Temudo; Inês Veloso
Publisher: Research Institute in Art, Design and Society (i2ADS) / Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
ISBN: 978-989-54703-6-5
108 pages

More info at CEM Website.
(Portuguese and English)

The Value of Doing and the Value of Seeing Done: The Concept of Drawing of Rui Inácio

Book chapter, 2017

The essay included in the exhibition catalogue The Sea is Alive and Does Not Speak, focus in the art practice of Rui Inácio. I suggest that to “see something done”, in art terms, can provide enjoyable moments for the public that is moved by conceptual and material challenges artists face while working in their studio.

Book title: Rui Inácio: o Mar é Vivo e não Fala
Authors: Sara Antónia Matos; Sofia Ponte
Publisher: Galerias Municipais/EGEAC
ISBN: 978-989-8167-60-6
70 pages

More info at Academia.
(Portuguese and English)

About Painting

Book editor, 2017

The book brings together essays by students enrolled in the graduate courses Current Art Theories and Practices and Theory and History of Painting, from 2014 to 2017, at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. Based in class readings and discussions, students developed research that relate their art practice with Painting, highlighting some of the central debates in Contemporary Art.

Editor: Sofia Ponte
Authors: Abigail Ascenso; Franciso Laranjo; Tiago Madaleno; Joana Patrão; Daniela Pinheiro; Sofia Ponte; Mariana Poppovic; Ivan Postiga; Regina Ramos; Carolina Vieira
Publisher: Research Institute in Art, Design and Society (i2ADS)/Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
ISBN: 978-989-756-124-8
159 pages

More info at Academia.
(Portuguese Only)

Musealizing Functional Art

Book chapter, 2015

This essay discusses the exhibition of functional art, using ‘paraSITE’ (1998) by Michael Rakowitz as an example, through the concept of ethnographic object by anthropologist Joaquim Pais de Brito, and the concept of remain by curator Marie Brugerolle. I suggest that ethnography helps to understand the meaning(s) of ‘functional artworks’ in the context of museums.

Book title: Sustainable Art – Facing the Need for Regeneration, Responsibility and Relations
Editor: Anna Markowska
Authors: Dean Chatwin; Albert Coers; Joanna Filipczyk; Zoryana Hnetsko; Ewelina Jankowiak; Agnieszka Jankowska-Marzec; Eleonora Jedlińska; Irma Kozina; Natalia Krawczyk; Robert Kusek; Dorota Łagodzka; Nicole Loeser, Anna Markowska; Reiner Maria Matysik; Małgorzata Micuła; Jean-Francois Paquay; Filip Pręgowski; Sofia Ponte; Zofia Reznik; Joanna Zofia Rose; Mateusz Salwa; Patrycja Sikora; Natalia Smolyanskaya, Sue Spaid, Mikołaj Spodaryk, Lisa Paul Streitfeld, Wojciech Szymański, Esra Yıldız, Rebecca Liliane Wichmann; Daria Wartalska; Ewa Wojtowicz; Magdalena Worłowska.
Publisher: Polski Instytut Studiów nad Sztuką Świata
ISBN: 978-83-62737-89-5
315 Pages

More info at Ibuk.

Fernando Lanhas

Book chapter, 2010

This short essay focus on Portuguese artist Fernando Lanhas (1923-2012) and in his oil painting “032-60” (1960). The book 100 Artworks in the CAM Collection, includes essays about one hundred artworks by artists of the 20th century, that are part of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation art collection.

Book title: 100 Obras da Colecção do CAM
Authors: Lígia Afonso; Ana Filipa Candeias; Isabel Lopes Cardoso; Isabel Carlos; Maria Coutinho; Catarina Crua; Sara Afonso-Ferreira; Emília Ferreira; Helena de Freitas; Luís Henriques; Joana Simões Henriques; Margarita Kataga; Joana Cunha Leal; Leonor Nazaré; José Oliveira; João Pinharanda; Sofia Ponte; Afonso Ramos; Patrícia Rosas; Marina Bairrão Ruivo; André Silveira; António Soares; Sandra Santos; Mariana Pinto dos Santos; Ana Vasconcelos.
Publisher: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Edições Almedina
ISBN: 978-972-635-210-5
214 Pages

More info at Gulbenkian.
(Portuguese and English)