Exhibition Opening: 25 September, 7 pm

Specially conceived for the Mirandela Train Station, this exhibition presents a group of works by Carla Filipe (Aveiro, Portugal, 1973) from the Serralves Collection in a dialogue with historical documents from the Station Archives, selected by the artist and exhibited here for the first time. Taking the unique nature of this space as its starting point and following some of Carla Filipe’s main lines of research, the exhibition is closely connected to the railway world and the concept of travel in its broadest sense: as a form of wandering and escaping, of migration and subsistence. Its title refers precisely to the idea of a voluntary or imposed form of nomadism, evoking the notion of the home as a place in motion. 

Raised close to Entroncamento in a family of railway workers and in an environment of great social and political upheaval, Carla Filipe later settled in Porto, but her work is largely developed in motion: travelling the country by train and roaming the city on foot; collecting fragments and stories; considering the street as a studio and travel as a floating experience between awe and disillusion.

COM A CASA ÀS COSTAS reflects the nomadic nature of the artist’s practice in different ways, bringing together works conceived between 2010 and 2021, and in a variety of places: both in Portugal and during artistic residencies abroad, namely in London and Antwerp. On the other hand, as part of the Serralves Collection Touring Exhibitions Programme, WITH MY HOME ON MY BACK is effectively on the move, adapting to the different spaces where it will be shown as it travels around the country.

Between drawings and words, fragments and books, experiences and memories, Carla Filipe’s practice has transformed this station-house into a house-museum, into a place in motion, open to new meanings and demands, where History is never simple, unique or linear.

The exhibition, curated by Joana Valsassina, is part of the Serralves Collection Touring Exhibitions Programme, which aims to make the Foundation’s collection accessible to different audiences across the country.

Production: Fundação de Serralves — Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto