ENCENAÇÃO

13 Março a 13 Abril

Encenação

With Bruno José Silva, Hernâni Reis Baptista, Isa Toledo, and Mariana Malheiro

Curated by Bruno Humberto

From the beginning, Zaratan has entrusted the organization of its exhibition program to artists, thereby embodying an anti-hierarchical perception of the art world—where artists, curators, gallerists, critics, and the public are all considered "players" in the same game—and embracing the theory of expanded practice, in the sense of considering the artist not only as the "creator" of the artwork, but as a socially embedded cultural operator.

This vision is realized in exhibition proposals that not only involve, but rather originate from, the artist-curators involved in the process. It aims to stimulate procedures shaped by the acceptance of uncertainty, articulating a particular way of integrating experimentation, spontaneity, and discovery into curating, unburdened by conditions or commitments associated with pre-established results.

In 2025, Zaratan invites Bruno Humberto to assume the role of artist-curator with the organization of an exhibition. Encenação emerges in the context of this invitation and presents artistic works by Bruno José Silva, Hernâni Reis Baptista, Isa Toledo, and Mariana Malheiro.
On March 13th, at 7:00 PM, the opening event will celebrate an artistic collaboration, featuring a dual reading by Isabel Costa and curator Bruno Humberto, accompanied by the musical performance of saxophonist Pedro Alves Sousa.

In this «Encenação» we find works that share a latent performativity, various presences and states of preparation for an action on stage, which we can access in parts and already in the silence that precedes the premiere. The architecture of the amphitheater deconstructed into sculpture with Bruno José Silva; the mirror and costume that document the actress's breathing, in Hernâni Reis Baptista; the objects that indicate the choreography and repeated death on stage, in the case of Isa Toledo; and the visions of the cruel solitude of the performer and the violence of the spectacle in Mariana Malheiro's painting. All this, with the proximity and distance that the darkness brought by a curtain amplifies, and that the murmur of the audience looking at things grants.

Poster Image: "We are going down" (2022) by Bruno José Silva.

Artist Bios:

BRUNO JOSÉ SILVA holds degrees in Architectural Studies from (FA.ULisboa) and in Photography from HÉLICE (Merit Scholarship). He is a transdisciplinary artist who explores the intersection between art, new media, and critical reflection. His artistic research focuses on themes such as the exploration of time, the perception of the image, and the impact of digital tools on contemporaneity. He has presented his work in collective and solo exhibitions, in independent and institutional spaces. | https://brunojosesilva.com/

HERNÂNI REIS BAPTISTA (Vila do Conde, 1986) holds a degree in Plastic Arts - Multimedia, from FBAUP. His practice is permeated by concerns about human and non-human relationships, arising from a constellation of interests that sometimes overlap, touch or repel: the surface, ruin, reflection, artifice, beauty, survival, the animal, the plant. Hernâni has been exhibiting regularly since 2011 and their work is represented in private and institutional collections, such as the Frances Reynolds Collection, the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, the Porto Municipal Art Collection and the State Collection of Contemporary Art . | https://hernanireisbaptista.com/

ISA TOLEDO is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lisbon. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1990, she studied at Camberwell College of Arts - University of the Arts London, followed by a master's degree in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. Her work transitions between painting, sculpture, video, and installation, with the word serving as a guiding thread. In Lisbon, she is represented by Galeria Miguel Nabinho and has exhibited in New York, Berlin, and São Paulo. | https://isatoledo.com/

MARIANA MALHEIRO (1995, Lisbon) studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon and at Kunsthochschule Kassel (Germany). She has held solo exhibitions at Espaço Cultural Mercês (2024), Casa do Comum (2024) and Rua das Gaivotas 6 (2022). She has participated in group exhibitions at L'appartment 49c in New York, Galeria Monitor (2024) Sociedade Nacional de Belas-Artes (2024), Brotéria (2023) in Lisbon, Arquipélago - Centro de Artes Contemporâneas (2022) Azores, among others. Her work has been included in publications such as Umbigo Magazine 88, DOSE 11, and Portuguese Emerging Artists 2023. In 2024, she participated in the Kunstraum LLC artist residency in New York, with the support of the Luso-American Development Foundation. Her work is represented in the collection of the Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento and in private collections in Portugal, the United States and Brazil. | https://marianamalheiro.com/

Curator Bio:

BRUNO HUMBERTO studied and taught in the Master's in Performance Making at Goldsmiths College, London. He has collaborated with artists Graeme Miller, Gustavo Ciríaco, Allard van Hoorn, among others. The exhibition Acts of Disappearance, awarded by the Parallel award, was presented, among others, at the 2019 edition of Photo London. With Franek Ammer, he curated the exhibition The Happy Death of Images presented at the Book Art Museum in Lodz, Poland, as part of the Fotofestiwal 2022 program. He is co-editor of the contemporary art magazine Wrong Wrong and does programming and curating in various spaces and projects. | www.brunohumberto.com

Reading:

ISABEL COSTA is an actress and director. He works in theater, cinema and curating visual arts and performing arts. He is part of the Os Possessos theater company. He created Estufa-Fria – On the way to a new sphere of relationships (2017), Marathon of Manifestos and Salão Para o Século XXI (2019). He curated the Cycle of Reenactments – Performance Arte Portuguesa (2020/21) and the cycle Sound and Future – Four Tools to Unblock the Present (2022).

Concert:

PEDRO ALVES SOUSA (1986, Lisbon) graduated in sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon in 2009. Today he presents his work mainly as a saxophonist, also branching out into other areas such as composition and production, photography, installations and performance. He founded or co-founded bands such as: Má Estrela, EITR, Casa Futuro, Peter Gabriel Duo, Pão. He also participates in various bands such as Caveira, Volúpias das Cinzas, Serpente. He has collaborated with names such as Evan Parker, RP Boo, Phil Niblock, Sei Miguel, Rafael Toral, Mão Morta, Alexander Von Schlippenbach, Thurston Moore, Johan Berthling, Peter Evans, Marching Church, Black Bombaim. He was the 2013 winner of the Ernesto de Sousa Scholarship and participated in the Experimental Intermedia Festival in New York. At the end of 2022 he launches the record label Futuro Familiar.