Ship of Mirrors

Casa da Liberdade - Mário Cesariny presents Ship of Mirrors, an exhibition by the BorderLovers Collective, part of the Portugal-France 2022 Season

The exhibition opens on 18 June at 6pm in Lisbon's historic centre, in Alfama, establishing a link between Cesariny and Rimbaud.

On June 18, when 73 years have passed since the first exhibition of the Portuguese surrealist antigroup "The Surrealists", founded by Cruzeiro Seixas and Mário Cesariny, the exhibition Ship of Mirrors opens at the Casa da Liberdade - Mário Cesariny, in the historic centre of Lisbon, Alfama.

Created by the BorderLovers collective, with Ivo Bassanti and Pedro Amaral, the exhibition is part of the official programme of the Portugal - France 2022 Season, based on the concept "Dream Couples/Couples of Rêve", by João Pinharanda, and the curatorial project by Carlos Cabral Nunes.

Ship of Mirrors verses the relationship between Mário Cesariny and Arthur Rimbaud and the fusion of the two surrealist movements - the Parisian, led by André Breton and the Portuguese, led by Mário Cesariny. The exhibition includes portraits of the protagonists, reinterpretations and artworks created on purpose for the location that dialogue with the artworks of masters representative of the two surrealist movements, namely Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Wilfredo Lam, Victor Brauner, among other authors integrated in the Lusofonias Collection, whose artistic paths reflect this imaginary. 

Due to the inauguration of Ship of Mirrors, the Colectivo Multimédia Perve, a non-profit association that artistically directs the exhibition spaces in Alfama related to the Perve Galeria, announces that it will coincide, on that date, with the inauguration of a new exhibition space, the 27 Art, an experimental project of public art in Alfama, dedicated to contemporary art. The first exhibition in this space, which will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, will be on display until the end of July and will combine sound installations with urban art and sculpture by the artists of the BorderLovers collective and Marco Brás, a Luso-Mozambican artist who has been living in New York for a decade and a half. 

On the same day, June 18, at the space 27 Art, a happening will be held by the BorderLovers collective, thusly marking the beginning of the cycle of artistic interventions programmed for the months between June and September. The sound installation incorporates musical excerpts composed, over the years, for exhibitions presented at Perve Galeria, by artists such as Vítor Rua, Carlos Zíngaro, Adolfo Luxúria Canibal & Estilhaços and Beezy Bailey with Brian Eno, among others.