Nella Casa Della Madre | Alice Geirinhas

Cycle "Poetic or Political?", curatorship by João Baeta

[Free Entry]

These three images are pages taken from a liturgical book that I am rewriting, crossing out the text and only leaving some words to be read, thus changing the religious message of the book Nella Casa del Padre. 

Amore, terra, acqua, vita, luce, are some of the words that can be read.

In the summer of 2019, I went to visit my daughter Camila who was volunteering at a refugee support center in Carignano, a village near Turin. I found this liturgical book inside the beautiful church in Carignano and brought it with me.

Its transformation into a work of art, has begun during the first confinement and is not yet completed. Of the 416 pages, 267 have been intervened and I will only finish crossing it out when the pandemic is over.

From this artist's book came the Amore flag for the Four Flags Lisbon project, which was hoisted on ZDB's façade in July 2020. Now 3 more pages are coming out for the Mupi Gallery at Maus Hábitos, Porto.

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About the artist

Alice Geirinhas has a BA in Sculpture from FBAUL, an MA in Contemporary Art Practices from FBAUP, and a PhD in Contemporary Art from Colégio das Artes, Universidade de Coimbra. She was a teacher of illustration at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and at the Ar.Co. art school. She was a programmer and coordinator of the training area at Lisbon's Bedeteca (2001-2005).

She is currently a professor in the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra and at the Colégio das Artes.

His first solo exhibition, A Nossa Necessidade de Consolo É Impossível de Satisfazer, Zé dos Bois (ZDB) was followed by (among others), Alice, Bedeteca de Lisboa; Ce sex qu'est pas un, Museu do Neo-realismo, VilaFranca de Xira, Chora, Gaivotas 6, Lisboa.

Among the group exhibitions he has participated in are: 2012-2020 artworks from the António Cachola Collection, MACE, Elvas, Ponto de Fuga/Vanishing Point, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, A Guerra como Modo de Ver, MACE, Elvas, Género na Arte: corpo, sexualidade, identidade e resistência, MNAC, Lisbon, Re-produtores de Sentido, SESC Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Portugal: 30 Artists Under 40, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo.

Some of her graphic work has been published, including the books Alice, Bedeteca de Lisboa (1999), Isto de Estar Vivo by Luiz Pacheco Contraponto (2000) and the artist books, A Nossa Necessidade de Consolo é Impossível de Satisfazer #2, Mimesis (2003), Alice's Guest Book edition by the author, 1 book (2010), The Cabinet of Dr Alice, Stolen Books (2014) and Manifesto Visual, Stolen Books (2016).

From the artistic collective Sparring Partners (Alice Geirinhas, João Fonte Santa and Pedro Amaral), the exhibitions stand out: Tudo o que é sólido dissolve-se no ar, Museu Berardo, A Filosofia do Dinheiro, Museu da Cidade, Lisbon, 2010 and Low, ZDB, 1995. She also integrated Girlschool, an artistic collective dedicated to performative classes about art and sexuality together with Susana Mendes Silva.