Exhibition | A HOUSE FOR NO ONE

November 07th to 09th, 2024

Exhibition view. Photography: Bruno Lopes

GROUP EXHIBITION:

Magali Magistry, Maria Renée Morales Lam, Susana Rocha

TEXT:

Susana Rocha

There is a leaking ceiling, some exposed pipes, glass roofs and haunted spaces... Somehow this is a house.

I was wondering, not long ago, about a children’s song by Vinicius de Moraes about a funny house - there was no ceiling/there was nothing there, you could not sleep in it because the house had no walls - but, as it goes on, the melody also explains that it was a construction made with great care, at the number zero on the street that belonged to the fools.

Almost every child in Portugal learns this song at a very young age... As if misery is a quaint concept, or one dificult to grasp when heard from a singing child. Is a creepy song... but it has a set in stone truth... House and home are two different concepts, though overlapped.

If the first is born from the necessity of structural shelter and structural protection, the second is given by an emocional one - and, in this equation, has definitely the higher value.

At the core of this exhibition there are collaborations that became friendships and friendships that became collaborations. A house was built, but also a home. Is not by chance that the works presented are by artists with stories of uprooted realities, motherhood and crafts(women)ship. It is a house for no one... but you can guess that is also something else.

This nuclear spaces - these houses, these homes - are at the core of our growth and seem to resonate with us before and long after we come of age... We built new homes, with what was imprinted in us and with what we find along the way. We collect windows, as breathing spaces; we keep our attics as organized as we can - if we can; we think about pipes as veins permeating the space.

We could also reflect upon our macro house, in a world that is getting scarier and scarier. We could think about the city, its architecture and drying racks... the occupants inside of each house, and stories and superstitions passing from generation to generation. But for today, it might just be enough to play amongst the lights and shadows of an exhibition space.

*“A Casa”, Vinicius de Moraes: Era uma casa muito engraçada / Não tinha teto, não tinha nada / Ninguém podia entra nela não / Porque na casa não tinha chão / Ninguém podia dormir na rede / Porque na casa não tinha parede / Ninguém podia fazer pipi / Porque pinico não tinha ali / Mas era feita com muito esmero / Na Rua dos Bobos, número zero / Mas era feita com muito esmero / Na Rua dos Bobos, número zero.