Madragoa is happy to present a dialogue between works by Luís Lázaro Matos (b. 1987, Évora) and Belén Uriel (b. 1974, Madrid) in ARCOlisboa 2022, at booth F05.

Apparently lighthearted and playful, Luís Lázaro Matos’ works actually investigate complex dynamics dealing with current social and philosophical constructions shaping contemporary forms of narrative. In his lush and colourful graphic figurations, humor and drama coexist, opening up discourses which allude to both intimate and social dynamics, often dealing with identity politics and queerness. As metaphorical portraits of today’s communal aesthetic, imbued with his personal experiences as a digital native, Luís Lázaro Matos’ works reveal shared emotional images.

The project White Shark Café, which the artist developed in Marseille in 2018, originated from his research on the 'migration' of artists to southern France in the early 20th century. In his investigation, he came across the expression White Shark Café as a reference that biologists use to describe a remote area in the mid-Pacific where sharks gather for an unknown reason, that cannot be connected to their reproduction or feeding needs. Biologists, therefore, named this area White Shark Café to suggest that the sharks go there for the simple purpose of socializing. This amusing phenomenon allowed Luís to develop a parallel with the migratory pattern of artists to the South of France throughout history. The drawings in the shape of old-time swimsuits visualize the possible interactions between the two species, sharks and artists, for which the socializing need seemed to have created an unusual migratory path.

Belén Uriel’s art practice is centered on household objects and how the way we interrelate with them can condition our social habits. She concentrates on the sculptural qualities of materials such as glass and metal in the rendering of organic shapes, which originate in the design of objects that would accommodate, sustain or have a relation with the human body. These elements, rearranged by the artist, seem to transform into anatomical parts themselves, partially reconstructing and going back to the bodies that indirectly inspired their form.

Monotonia (2019), Não Fazer (2019) e AR (2019) come from Belén Uriel's solo exhibition Bonança, at Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, in 2019. "Bonança" is a Portuguese word meaning "lull" or "calm", related with the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity, while its homophone in English, "bonanza", is used for sudden luck or good fortune.

The works in the exhibition evoke fragmented everyday objects that speak of the poetics of rest and calm as spaces to escape from a hyperindustrialized society fascinated with immediacy. This is the case, for instance, of Não Fazer (2019), in which a large metal structure is the support for two moulds that seem to be cast from legs and whose title defends the right to do nothing, to waste time, for the need to create spaces for non-productivity and rest.

All these fragments are made in glass, one of the paradigmatic materials of modern design and architecture. Belén Uriel works repeatedly with this material because, as she says herself, she is interested in “the vast spectrum of connotations it embraces as an element or material that evokes the idea of transparency, connotations that range from its use in domestic and commercial contexts to large corporations (...) which revolves around the idea of fragility.” Glass is also full of ambivalence, from its transparency and opacity to its ability to be at or to generate three-dimensionality at the same time.