ESCANIFOBÉTICA

LealVeileby

April 24 - June 8 2025

Seven syllables strung together – ES CA NI FO BÉ TI CA – like a discordant rendition of DO-RE-ME from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1959 musical TheSound of Music, shape this Portuguese slang word from the same decade. Though its origin is obscure there’s a point to be made about its off-kilter quality being expressive of what it tries to describe: something clumsy, strange, extravagantand rare. What ESCANIFOBÉTICA isn’t is skilful, quick and effective, but neither is it common, conventionalnor trivial.

Now, all attempts at understanding something involve some act of translation, and it was while discussing queerness one evening, and a potential Portuguese translation of the word QUEER, that ESCANIFOBÉTICA staggered through the fly curtain by the doorway and joined the conversation.

BIOGRAPHY | LEALVEILEBY (António Leal, Lisboa, 1976 and Jesper Veileby, Karlstad, 1985) is a Portuguese-Swedish artist duo based in Malmö, Sweden. They explore themes surrounding queerness and hybridity as well as contemporary perceptions and ideas about reality, using a queer/magic framework for reinterpreting the boundaries of the world – both scientific and political, as dictated by our current form of ”worlding” in the westernised world. 

As a duo and a married couple, they work interdisciplinary by weaving together storytelling, observations of everyday life, scientific speculation and mysticism, often focusing on media such as video, installation, objects, photography, sculpture, text and sound works. 

They have been shown internationally, both inside and outside of Europe, with solo exhibitions in both Sweden and Portugal. Recently they were shortlisted for the Prémio Norberto Fernandes – Arte e Tecnologia (Fundação Altice, Lisboa, 2024), in 2023 they presented a solo exhibition at Galeria Graça Brandão (Lisbon), and in 2017 they were the winners of Fuso - Video Art Festival. Their practice is represented in the collection of Fundação EDP/MAAT (PT), Coleção Norlinda e José Lima (PT), Region Skåne (SE) and Göteborg Stad (SE).

LINK | https://www.lealveileby.com/

GUIDED TOUR | 26 April, at 17:00

SUPPORT | Zaratan is a structure funded by República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direcção-Geral das Artes. LealVeileby's mobility is funded by the European Union into the Culture Moves Europe mobility action.