Artist
Inês Quente
Inês Quente (1992, Avintes, Portugal) is a visual artist who lives and works between Vila Nova de Gaia and Porto.
She has a master's degree in Documentary Filmmaking from the University for the Creative Arts (UK, 2017) and a degree in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (PT, 2015).
She was a grantee of the Culture Moves Europe (2024), a program funded by the European Union and the Goethe Institut.
Her practice navigates themes of ecology, memory and transformation.
She showcases her work regularly since 2013, both nationally and internationally, such as her latest individual site-specific installation For Every Light Its Place, at Gallerí Úthverfa, in the city of Ísafjörður (ISK, 2024).
She took part in the ArtsIceland international artistic residency (ISK, 2023 and 2024) and Grão research and artistic residency (PT, 2023).
They Dream Not
They Dream Not is an arts-based research project that investigates places rich in nature, with diverse geography and weather conditions, to try to understand the profound relationship between the Earth and all its inhabitants (Animal/Plant/Fungus).
An on-going project that started from the study site of the Icelandic island, between glaciers and volcanoes, exploring the changes in the landscape over time, the socio-cultural relationship of its inhabitants with the elements that have dominated them, the migratory routes and their relationship with light and sound, and the creation of work in residence based on close collaboration with the nature of the place, between 2023-2024.
The project also passed briefly through the region of Aveiro (2023) where it tackled the region’s cultural and historical heritage in relation to its environmental and civilizational biodiversity, the monocultures of cellulose and the recent fire catastrophe.
The project's expansion to other places arises from a desire to preserve and learn from nature. The urgency of maintaining a balanced and healthy world for future generations and to reverse the extinction of the ecosystems and the environmental crises has become the overriding message of the project They Dream Not.
Only by broadening our knowledge, strengthening our appreciation of, sensitivity to and identity with Nature, and popularising natural knowledge in society through art and culture, are we able to appreciate life and preserve it for the future. This project also transforms the way I work with nature, allowing me to connect with
territories and their history in a more direct way, creating in-situ and ephemerally, in tune with the rhythms of nature.
I favour slow and manual labour, (im)perfection and chaos to state-of-the-art technology, to weave Earth’s relations through alternative and historical photography, analog film, drawing and collage. Often intersecting the fields of biology, chemistry and geology, They Dream Not makes use of what Nature provides, favouring traditional cross-species relations of support.
Inês Quente’s They Dream Not is a research project, initiated through an ArtsIceland international artistic residency and expanded in Aveiro, Portugal. The work, incorporating alternative and historical photography, analog film, drawing and collage, investigates places rich in nature, with diverse geography and weather conditions, to understand the profound relationship between the Earth and all its inhabitants (Animal/Plant/Fungus). Quente lives in Lisbon and has an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from the University for the Creative Arts, UK, and a BA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, Portugal.
Emanuel Constantino is interested in the practical process of photography in analog format and the unpredictability of the results it offers. His project (…) se elas houverem, a gente vai tirá-las (if there are any, we'll take them out) examines the universe of documentary and fiction in their various intersections and interactions. This curious, inventive body of work was activated by Constantino’s discovery of an online archive – the 1995 Radio and Television Portugal broadcast titled ‘Rumour about Piranhas in the River Ave’. Constantino lives in Porto and has a BA in Photography from the School of Media Arts and Design in Porto, Portugal where he is currently undertaking a MA in Cinema and Photography.
Drawing inspiration from Walter Benjamin’s ideas on mechanical reproduction, Jessica Gaspar’s project Cells investigates how digital apparatuses can expand our sensory capabilities. The camera becomes an extension of vision, unveiling layers of reality beyond what the naked eye perceives. Just as microscopy reveals hidden worlds, Cells proffers an alternative lens to the everyday, an intersection between the organic and the artificial. Gaspar lives in Porto and holds a PhD in Science and Technology of the Arts from Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal and a BVA from the Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, Portugal.
To João Bragança Gil João The Origin (On&On) is a type of ‘origin’ that approaches and retreats, meets and diverges. The project utilizes pre-digital media of carousel and photo slides to project a circular notion of time. The tangibility of the process slows time and creates a reflective viewer engagement, with time, as we know it, transformed. Based in Lisbon, Bragança Gil has a BA in Industrial Design from the School of Arts and Design, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal; an MA in Industrial Design from Central Saint Martins, UK, and a BA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Universidade Lisboa, Portugal where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Media Arts.
Patricia Assiss's project terceira pálpebra (third eyelid) brings together a photographic series taken in urban spaces. The monochromatic images appear as a collection of apparently opaque, inert gestures, as if paralysed in an uncertain time, but which simultaneously reveal a city in movement and transformation. Lisbon based, Assiss has a an MA in Culture Studies from the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal, and is a Post-Graduate in Contemporary Photography Discourses, Faculty of Fine Arts, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal, where she also achieved a Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations.
Selection committee
Virgílio Ferreira and Jayne Dyer, Co-Artistic Directors, Bienal Fotografia do Porto 2025
Vera Carmo, independent curator