Mónica de Miranda
“no longer with memory but with its future” curated by Paula Nascimento
Event on the occasion of the opening of the 59th Venice Biennale
Oratorio di San Ludovico Calle dei Vecchi, Dorsoduro 2552, Venice (waterbus stop San Basilio)
openinig April 20, 2022, from 17 to 20
It will be presented a group of previously unseen works by the interdisciplinary artist whose field-based practice investigates convergences between politics, identity, gender, memories, and place, as well as the entanglements of identity construction within its own affective geographies. The title of the exhibition reflects the dialectical relationship between past, present, and future through creative engagement with historical traces to project and imagine new futures. It interprets a cosmovision towards new ways of understanding human subjectivity, bringing forward the necessary discussion on the relationships between human dimensions, such as language, politics, and the environment in which we live.
At the center of the exhibition project is the video Path to the Stars, (2022) shot on the banks of the Kwanza River, the longest in Angola, and inspired by the poem of the same name by Agostinho Neto. The vitality and strength of the river’s ecosystem, linked to the history of the Atlantic, functions as an analogy between the body, the water and its relationship with history. The film follows the journey of a heroine from dawn to dusk, confronted with her own shadow and with different temporalities and micro-narratives, offering a counter-narrative composed of the complex biographies that overlap and interact: the past and the anti-colonial freedom fighters, the uncertainty of the present and the desire to belong, the projection of the future and the desire to reach a symbiosis with nature, unfolding the ecological crisis that destroys our own nature. The central section functions structurally and conceptually as a river from which branches and layers of stories and metaphors unfold.
The exhibition also features never-before-seen photographic works that explore the intersections of femininity and nature and a word installation. Through an opposing view of history, Mónica’s works bring forth important reflections on belonging and the creation of futures in the contemporary era of the Anthropocene.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with a foreword by Vittorio Urbani, and texts by Paula Nascimento, Ana Nolasco, Marisa Moorman and Yara Nakahanda Monteiro.
Mónica de Miranda (bon Porto 1976) is a Portuguese artist of Angolan origin who lives and works between Lisbon and Luanda. An artist and researcher, her work is based on themes of urban archaeology and a personal geography. de Miranda’s practice is interdisciplinary, using drawing, installation, photography, film, sound and video in their broadest forms, and staying within a field between fiction and documentary.
She holds a BA in Visual Arts and Sculpture from Camberwell College of Arts (London) and a PhD in Artistic Studies from Middlesex University (London). In 2019, she was nominated for the New Artist Award at MAAT (Museu de Arte Arquitectura e Technologies, Lisbon) and in 2016 New Photo Bank Award, exhibiting her work as a finalist at Berardo Collection Museum. Among his exhibitions, the main ones are: Architecture and Manufacturing, at MAAT (2019); Panorama, Banco Económico (Luanda, 2019); Doublethink: Doublevision, Pera Museum (Istanbul, 2017); Daqui Pra Frente, Caixa Cultural (Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, 2017-2018); Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennale (2017); Dakar Biennial in Senegal (2016); Casablanca Biennale(2016), Addis Photo Fest (2016); Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography (2015); MNAC (Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, 2015); 14th Venice Architecture Biennale (2014); São Tomé e Príncipe Biennale (2013); Estado Do Mundo, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2008). He is among the founders of Hangar (Artistic Research Center, Lisbon, 2014).
Her work is present in a variety of public and private collections, including: Calouste Gulbenkian, MNAC, MAAT, FAS (private collection), the Nesr Art Foundation, and the Municipal Archive of Lisbon.
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona 
Mónica de Miranda, “no longer with memory but with its future”, exhibition view, a cura di Paula Nascimento, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venezia, ph. Raul Betti, courtesy Nuova Icona