Humor, Fantasy and Symbol

Manuel João Vieira (b. 1962) was born and studied in Lisbon, the setting of his artistic activity marked by a critical aspect always associated with humor and a certain theatricality. He was one of the creators of the 80s Homeostético group (alongside Pedro Proença, Xana, Pedro Portugal, Fernando Brito, and Ivo Pereira da Silva), which advocated for intervention art, emphasizing a critical stance and humor. Drawing inspiration from the well-known book by Italian writer Italo Calvino that gives the composition its title, the artist creates a theater of strange dreamlike fantasies, with fable characters animated by a climate of disquieting disturbance, paradoxes, and fears that are characteristic of contemporary sensibility. Static and vertiginous movement, suspended or composite figures, between history and myth, majestic and ambiguous architectures animated with kabbalistic inscriptions, 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)