Bienal’23 Fotografia do Porto, Portugal
ACTS OF EMPATHY
May 18-July 2, 2023
Location: Porto, Portugal
More information on bienal23.bienalfotografiaporto.pt/en

The third edition of Porto’s photography biennial, entitled ‘Acts of Empathy’, focuses on assessing today’s social, ecological, and economic resources, and re-imagining a regenerative future. Bienal’23 co-artistic directors Jayne Dyer and Virgílio Ferreira invited 70 artists and 14 guest curators in 14 locations in Porto, transforming them into dynamic creative spaces where visitors are invited to participate in artistic ‘Acts of Empathy’.

Bienal’23 explores our ability to feel, collaborate and drive change through artistic acts of connectivity, reparation, and healing via CONECTAR, EXPANDIR, SUSTENTAR, VIVIFICAR (Connect, Expand, Sustain, Vivify), four sections that intersect local and global perspectives.

While SUSTENTAR features creative laboratories in Portuguese urban centers that look into urban and regional sustainability issues, VIVIFICAR, through artistic residencies with communities, addresses one of the most pressing issues in low-density territories: the settlement of populations. Because these two sections demand concrete solutions and actions, EXPANDIR brings an experimental dimension by presenting academic and professional socio-ecological initiatives for emerging artists. CONECTAR fosters diverse cultural and artistic ecosystems through the interchange of exhibition projects, ideas, and transdisciplinary practices on a national and worldwide scale.

Bienal'23 features projects that are supported by deliberate artist engagement in community and environmental activities in order to foster reparative acts and empathy for the future.

CONECTAR

SPECULATIVE ECOLOGIES
Portuguese Centre of Photography
Curators: Virgílio Ferreira, Jayne Dyer
Artists: Ursula Biemann, Hyeseon Jeong and Seongmin Yuk, Eliana Otta

Against the rapid deterioration in the conditions of all life on earth, Speculative Ecologies mediates on the probabilities of interconnection, repair and transformation. The artists interrogate current paradigms of power, the ‘ecological self’ in nature, inter-species communities and survival and the ties that sustain them.

DEEP BLUE
Gabinete Triplex - Museu do Porto
Curator: Mónica de Miranda
Artists: Faisal Abdu’Allah, Sethembile Msezane, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Xaviera Simmons, Helena Uambembe, Mónica de Miranda, Zineb Sedira, Athi-Patra Ruga, Kudzanai Chiurai, Sandim Mendes, Silvia Rosi

Deep Blue is a group exhibition that explores questions of identity, memory and ecology. The artists evoke spiritual and political symbolisms, metaphysical reflections and explore questions around non-Western spirituality and knowledge systems. As a premise for transformative, regenerative and empathetic futures, this exhibition features re-interpretations of the past from a space of healing, addressing significant secular issues.

IN LIGHT OR SHADOW OF WHAT WAS AND STILL IS
Casa Comum - Reitoria da Universidade do Porto
Curators: Betty Ketchedjian, Tarek Haddad, Roger Mokbel
Artists: Collectif 1200 - Myriam Boulos, Manu Ferneini, Ieva Saudargaite Douaihi, Tarek Haddad, Rima Maroun, Roger Mokbel, Omar Gabriel, Elsie Haddad, Paul Gorra, Betty Ketchedjian, Laura Menassa, Walid Nehme

Twelve Lebanese photographers address a myriad of events witnessed over the last few years through conceptual and intimate approaches that include documentary, storytelling, and contemporary photographic practices.


I PITY THE GARDEN
Mala Voadora Theater
Commissioner: Magda Guruli
Curator: Giorgi Spanderashvili
Artists: Mariam Natroshvili, Detu Jincharadze

I Pity the Garden, a virtual reality experience, enables guests to stroll through fragmented surroundings that show a planet rocked by human acts that foreshadow the apocalypse.



EXPANDIR

DESLOCAMENTOS
P.Artes Gallery
Curators: Pablo Berástegui, Lisa Barnard
Artists: Dominique Arieu, Gareth Davies, Tudor Etchells, Mohammad Hassan, Chan Kim, Adela Perez, Emma Pigott, Maria Dogoda, Andrezza Vieira, Jack Wrigley

Based on the concept of displacement as a non-chosen movement, the visual essays gathered in this exhibition include different approaches to displacement, related to territory, family ties, physical property or thought, and interspecies relations. The project is a collaboration between Bienal'23 and the University of South Wales' MA in Documentary Photography.

FADING SENSES, SENSITIVE TERRITORIES
Salut au monde! Gallery
Curator: Pablo Berástegui
Artist: Ligia Poplawska

In times of extinction of countless species and the devastating consequences of climate change, Ligia Poplawska addresses eco-anxiety and climate grief in two series presented in the exhibition: ‘Fading Senses’ and her most recent ‘Sensitive Territories’, recently filmed in Portugal.

IMAGEM EM DEVIR
MIRA FORUM, Gallery
Curator: José Maia
Artists: Alice Martins, Teresa Bessa

The works of Alice Martins and Teresa Bessa are based on the notion of a body in constant change. Deriving from Gilles Deleuze's notions of "becoming”, the artists’ works highlight performativity and transdisciplinarity in photography and the visual arts.


ETERNAL YOUTH
Pavilhão de Exposições da Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade do Porto
Curator: Susana Lourenço Marques

Eternal Youth presents collectively authored portraits, made since 2005 in the photography classes of Susana Lourenço Marques forming an extensive family album of this community.

VENTO (A)MAR
Panóptico, Hospital Conde Ferreira
Curator: Georgia Quintas Artists: Dori Nigro, Paulo Pinto

Dori Nigro and Paulo Pinto investigate the symbolic-poetic territory of ancestry and memory spaces between their state of origin of Pernambuco, Brazil, and the city of Porto where they settled.

BLACK | WHITE | GREEN
Casa da Imagem
Curators: Susana Lourenço Marques, Inês Azevedo, Joana Mateus Artists: Rita Leite, Yasmine Leal Moradalizadeh

Black|White|Green is a critical reflection on the Ecology of the Image, proposing a dialogue between artistic practices and the circumstances generated by the context of climate, political and social crisis, as well as the perception of the finitude of the resources that comes from it. Rita Leite and Yasmine Moradalizadeh explore the art-environment relationship through the sustainable and ecological production of images.

ARTISTS FUTURES 2023
Projection - 7o Piso do Palácio dos Correios
Artists: Carolina Tardin, Gonçalo C. Silva, Joana Dionísio, Maria Leonardo Cabrita, Marta Pinto Machado

Bienal’23 Fotografia do Porto nominated these 5 artists to join the European photography community FUTURES in 2023.



SUSTENTAR

INTER-RELATIONSHIPS
S. Bento Metro Station
Curators: Virgílio Ferreira, Jayne Dyer
Artists: Matilde Viegas, Uwa Iduozee

Inter-relationships stems from artistic residencies developed in Porto focusing on disadvantage and empowerment through the portrait. Matilde Viegas and Uwa Iduozee explore the power of dreams, imagination, and community to transform lives.

ACROSS THE MATTER OF TIME
Portuguese Center of Photography
Curators: Virgílio Ferreira, Jayne Dyer
Artist: Marcelo Moscheta

Marcelo Moscheta celebrates acts of empathy by proposing a poetic reflection on the process of contemplating the time of trees.

PETRICOR
ARTES Mota Galiza Gallery
Curators: Virgílio Ferreira, Jayne Dyer
Artist: Jorge Graça (Portugal)

Jorge Graça's project evokes the urgent need to preserve threatened ecosystems and implement regenerative processes to ensure the sustainable use of water in the natural landscape of Loulé.


GREEN ROOFS GREY ROOFS
Fundação Marques da Silva
Curators: Virgílio Ferreira, Luís Urbano, Jayne Dyer
Artist: Inês d’Orey (Portugal)

Inês d’Orey worked on the environmental benefits of green roofs in urban environments, focusing on the city of Porto. Her project creates a place of questioning between good practices and the transformative potential they generate, promoting reflection on sustainability, ecology and culture.



ViViFiCAR

ViViFiCAR exhibition
Museu do Vinho do Porto
Artists: Alexandre Delmar, André Tribbensee, Patrícia Geraldes, João Pedro Fonseca, Violeta Moura, Hasan Daraghmeh, Maria Lusitano, Raquel Schefer, Trond Lossius, Fábio Cunha, José Miguel Pires, Ine Harrang

The ViViFiCAR project embraced the concepts of 'living and staying' as guiding axes for immersive encounters between Douro, national and Norwegian artists, and local communities. In 2022, Alijó, Lamego, Mêda and Torre de Moncorvo hosted 3 artists in artistic residencies in each municipality. Twelve original works were developed, reflecting on territories and communities, celebrating the identity, memory, and resilience of places and their populations. A selection of these projects is exhibited at the Vinho do Porto Museum.



The Bienal Fotografia do Porto is organized and produced by Ci.CLO and financed by the Porto City Council and the Portuguese Directorate-General for Arts, with patronage support from Banco BPI and ”la Caixa” Foundation, with the institutional support of the National Commission of UNESCO and a network of strategic partners at national and international level.