Mauro Cerqueira: Sua boca, aberta para gritar, estava cheia de terra

Mauro Cerqueira is presenting, in what is Kunsthalle Lissabon's second exhibition, the project Sua boca, aberta para gritar, estava cheia de terra. The title of the show, a direct quote from the Portuguese translation of Hermann Broch's The Sleepwalkers. The Realist (Part III), refers to the artist's interest in developing a body of work that is anchored more to an ideosyncratic praxis than to the production of a verbal discursivity (or at least one that could be verbally translated). Split in two different, yet complementary moments, the show will open on September 10th in a Kunsthalle Lissabon completely altered in order to welcome a unique performative exercise by Mauro Cerqueira who will then leave the results, and the remains, of that performance accessible to Kunsthalle Lissabon's visitors. One week later, on September 18th, the final part of this project will be presented. Departing from the preassumptions, but mostly from the consequences of his initial performative action, the artist will develop a second body of work that will not only establish a dialog, but also will try to answer to the questions left unanswered by the initial episode.

Mauro Cerqueira was born in Guimarães in 1982. Having studied Artes/Desenho at Escola Superior Artística do Porto – Extensão de Guimarães, he now lives and works in Porto. Cerqueira has started his artistic activity recently, in second half of this decade and some of his solo shows include Lição nº 2, Espaço Campanhã, Porto (2009); Desenhos do Sol, Round the Corner, Lisbon (2009); Derrapagem, Galeria Reflexus, Porto (2008) and A Festa do Fim do Mundo, A Sala, Porto (2008). He also was part of the following group shows: Entroncamento, Espaço Avenida 211, Lisbon (2009); Prémio EDP Novos Artistas, Museu da Electricidade, Lisbon (2009); Part-ilha, Spike Island, Bristol, United Kingdom (2008) and Pilot: 3, Venice, Italy and Chelsea College of Arts & Design, London, United Kingdom (2007). He is also responsible, in partnership with André Sousa, for the curatorial project A Certain Lack of Coherence, in Porto. More recently, Cerqueira has been awarded an honorary mention at Prémio EDP Novos Artistas 2008. He is represented by Galeria Graça Brandão in Lisbon and by Galeria Reflexus in Porto.