Humor, Fantasy, and Symbolism

Manuel João Vieira (b. 1962) was born and studied in Lisbon, the backdrop of his artistic activity marked by a critical aspect always associated with humor and a certain theatricality. As one of the creators of the 80s group Homeostético (alongside Pedro Proença, Xana, Pedro Portugal, Fernando Brito, and Ivo Pereira da Silva), which advocated for interventionist art, emphasizing a critical posture and humor. Drawing inspiration from the well-known book by Italian writer Italo Calvino that gives the title to the composition, the artist creates a theater of strange dreamlike fantasies, with characters from fables, animated by an atmosphere of disturbing disturbance, paradoxes, and fears, all very characteristic of contemporary sensitivity. Stillness and dizzying movement, suspended or composite figures, between history and myth, majestic and ambiguous architectures animated by cabalistic writings, a haunting tornado threatening intimate oceans. Images and symbols of the fundamental ambivalence between dream and reality, death and life, good and evil.

Maria João Fernandes - International Association of Art Critics (AICA)