Conceived as a modern tale between two almost opposite points on the Iberian peninsula, the Tagus estuary in Lisbon and the Ebro delta in a state of climate emergency, my latest video installation ADID FLAMINGO (26’49’’) will open on 2 May, 6-9pm at the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon.
The project is supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and realized in collaboration with Julia Albani and Jeff Wood.
3/5 – 3/6/2024, Universidade de Lisboa / Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Rua da Escola Politécnica 56, 1250-102 Lisboa. Further information and full text available here.

Embarking on a new project and investigation for a video installation to be presented at the National Museum of Natural History and Science in Lisbon in 2024. ACID FLAMINGO is conceived as a fable with the Phoenicopterus roseus - the flamingo - as the main protagonist, based on an investigation of two almost opposite points on the Iberian peninsula: the Tagus estuary in Lisbon and the Ebro delta in a state of climate emergency. The project is supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and realized in collaboration with Julia Albani and Jeff Wood.

From 3 to 29 October 2023, my short film DEAR JOHN (2021, 5’’) is screening at arc en rêve centre d'architecture in Bordeaux, as part of “Atmospheric, filming architecture”, a project halfway between an exhibition and a festival, that presents the work of 40 authors – exploring the many ways in which video can contribute to the transmission of architecture. …

‘Architecture and the Reflective Practice’ is a new book with texts by Kenneth Frampton, Rafael Magrou, Yehuda Safran, Diogo Seixas Lopes, André Tavares, and Ana Vaz Milheiro on the body of work and ideas produced by Promontorio over the past 30 years. The atelier was founded in Lisbon in 1990 by Paulo Martins Barata, João Luís Ferreira, Paulo Perloiro, Pedro Appleton and João Perloiro as an experimental practice. I had the chance to accompany Promontorio’s research and projects over the past decades, and some of the evidence made it into this impressive book. published by Hatje Cantz, ISBN: 978-3-7757-5235-0, 2023, 448 Pages. Read more and order here.

For the upcoming Lisbon Architecture Triennale and upon invitation by Anastassia Smirnova, curator of the exhibition “Visionairies” , I travelled to Los Angeles to shoot at Second Home, a project by the Madrid-based Selgas Cano Architects. They made use of an existing two-story building from 1964 by Paul Williams and transformed a former Hollywood parking-lot into a gigantic co-working centre with 60 oval-shaped pods surrounded by over 10,000 plants and trees, many butterflies, ants, bees, squirrels… ”Visionaries” will focus on realised and realisable visions by architects, artists, designers, and scientists who aim to systematically change the world. To open on 30 September at Culturgest in Lisbon.

Abriu no Centro de Artes de Sines a minha exposição individual LUZES DISTANTES / DISTANT LIGHTS, uma pesquisa retrospetiva a olhar para o futuro. (09.07- 16.11.2022) Revisitei o corpo de trabalho que tenho dedicado a Sines nos últimos 30 anos – nomeadamente, “Daqui a 30 anos: Saudades” (1993); “SINES 2000” (2000); e “Sem título (Al Berto)” (2010) – e apresento uma nova serie de fotografias e uma instalação vídeo de dois canais sincronizados, com sete episódios ….

A Editora A+A Books lançou o #03 da coleção Single dedicado ao Hotel do Mar, obra do arquiteto Francisco Conceição Silva com um ensaio fotográfico inédito meu.

Conceição Silva, de que se celebra este ano cem anos da data de nascimento, respondeu às solicitações do seu cliente e do sítio, com uma solução na sequência da experimentação de grandes mestres do Movimento Moderno, rompendo, como os da sua geração, com as reverências às Belas-Artes e ao nacionalismo do Estado Novo da geração anterior.

Coincidindo com o arranque do desenvolvimento turístico do Sol e Mar em Portugal, o Hotel do Mar serviu de cadinho para outros projetos do mesmo ramo pela mão do arquiteto, quer para o Algarve ou a Serra da Estrela, para terminar na península de Tróia.

Disponível na A+A Books

Join me in Sines at the CAS Centro de Artes on Saturday 9 July, at 6pm for the opening of my upcoming solo exhibition “Luzes Distantes / Distant Lights”. Thrilled about the team brought together to produce the show, that will present a selection from 30 years of work and a new video project: including BUREAU for the exhibition design, Paulo Freitas for the graphic design of the show and the accompanying book, with texts by Joana Rafael and Case Miller, and co-curated by José Mouro & Julia Albani.

Como percecionar a passagem do tempo? Ou melhor, como medir a força do próprio tempo?

As Quedas / The Falls é uma exposição que investiga a passagem do tempo, inspirado pelos fenómenos físicos observados nas Cataratas do Niágara, e no arquipélago das Berlengas. Hipnotizado e atraído pela colossal massa de água em movimento, Nuno Cera explora – através do vídeo e da fotografia – o excesso do real: a cada segundo, precipitam-se do topo das cataratas 1,6 milhões de litros de água, salpicados pelo verde viridente dos sais dissolvidos pela força erosiva do rio Niágara.
Sala do Capítulo do Convento de São Francisco, 27.01. - 27.03.2022

'In-between this and something else' is a travel through the urban space of Macau through a set of my photographs and videos, and a sound installation by Rui Farinha. The project starts from the book 'Macau. Dialogues on Architecture and Society' (Circo de Ideias, 2019), edited by Margarida Saraiva and Tiago Saldanha Quadros. The exhibition, produced by Babel Cultural Organisation and esad-idea, Research in Design and Art, integrates a programme of talks, coordinated by Magda Seifert and Tomé Saldanha Quadros. This exhibition is a parallel project of DESIGNAgorà documentary film festival.
05.12.2021 — 15.01.2022 —> Galeria da Biodiversidade — Museu de História Natural e da Ciência, Universidade do Porto, Casa Andresen.

My short video Dear John (2021, 5’’) has been selected as one of the 10 finalists of the 2021 TRANSFER Architecture Video Award, that recognises creative and innovative short films in the field of architecture, city or landscape worldwide. Members of the Jury include: Giovanna Borasi, Alejandra Celedón, Josep Ferrando, Fabrizio Gallanti, Christophe Girot, Daniel Kötter, Rahul Mehrotra, Isabel Concheiro, and Helen van Vemde. The screening of the finalist videos and award ceremony will take place at the cinema encounters Ecrans Urbains on October 29, 2021 at the Musée Cantonal de Beaux Arts of Lausanne.

Thanks to the many wonderful collaborators in my ambitious project and second part of the Symphony of the Unknown, the accompanying publication is finally out! With texts by Susana Ventura, Julia Albani, George Kafka, Joaquim Moreno, and Mirko Zardini, and a conversation between Nuno Crespo and myself about about my work and artistic approach. The beautiful book in green linen, being inspired by an edition of Thomas Mann: Six Early Stories (Sun & Moon Press, 1997) has been designed by Something Fantastic, spreads over 192 pages (16,5 x 24 cm) with texts in English and Portuguese, many stills, photos, plans and sketches. Supported by the Portuguese Republic-Culture / Directorate-General of the Arts, the book is co-published by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa - Escola das Artes, CITAR and Sistema Solar (Documenta). Find a copy here or order one with EAN: 9789899006942.

Inside a gigantic control system around boilers, coal mills, turbines, and of course generators. As part of an upcoming solo exhibition “Distant Lights” at CAS - Centro das Artes de Sines in 2022, I started shooting inside the coal power plant in Sines, still and empty following its anticipated closure and shut down earlier in January 2021, after running for over 35 years…

For a new photo commission by A+A books I returned to Conceição Silva’s Hotel do Mar in Sesimbra (1958-1964). I was lucky to stay over night, just before everybody arrived for the summer holidays. The sea was there too.

DEAR JOHN —my new video work premiers on Zizhi, as part of AFTERGLOW: a series of online exhibitions offering a place for experimentation and the development of new work or something rescued from the archive.

DEAR JOHN (2021, 5min) navigates the eruptions of constructed mass and incomplete landscapes of Peter Eisenman’s Cidade da Cultura de Galicia in Santiago de Compostela (2001-2012) to face John Hejduk’s towers.