Miguel Marquês (Braga, 1996) is the young photographer chosen by Serralves for the return of the novobanco REVELAÇÃO competition to the Museum, an initiative that aims to support young photographers. Over the past 16 annual editions it has made it possible to produce and publicize the work of many emerging photographers who have gone on to become key artists in the current artistic panorama. Until this edition the novobanco REVELAÇÃO award was exclusively aimed at Portuguese artists or artists resident in Portugal, but it will now embrace the same international vocation as the Serralves Museum, alternating between a national and an international artist each year.

Although it was decided to start the presentation of this renewed format with a Portuguese artist, the work is anchored in a journey that took Miguel Marquês far from Portugal’s borders ― to a distant land that only due to a sad geopolitical event has become somewhat familiar: Moldova. As a former Soviet republic that became an independent country after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova has become accustomed to constant emigration, triggered by major socio-economic problems and national deficits. Some emigrants have travelled to Portugal; one of them, Valentin, met Miguel Marquês in Lisbon. However, he returned to his country’s capital supposedly on a brief visit and effectively never returned. This exhibition naturally reflects Miguel Marquês’ attempts to find him ― he travelled to Chișinău and stayed there for around a month. But more than an attempt to become a private detective, this photographic series reflects the artist’s efforts to deal with and record the characteristics of a territory that, given its multiple differences from Lisbon, can be considered to be truly exotic. Urban planning (or the lack thereof) blurs any differences between rural and urban areas, or between the centre and suburbs, filled with temporary architecture, obsolete car parks and the (omni)presence of stray dogs. These are just some of the elements that add to the mysterious environment that was explored by Miguel Marquês. Initially, this confrontation with the unknown left the artist in a permanent state of alert. Then, as the ‘exotic’ slowly became familiar, he began to feel that, rather than a vigilant detective, be became a drowsy stroller in, as the title of the exhibition indicates, a sleepy city.

This exhibition organized by the Serralves Museum is curated by Ricardo Nicolau and coordinated by Giovana Gabriel.