Retrospective exhibition
‘Did you miss me?’

14 — 25 oct

Opening: 14 oct, 6PM
+ book launch ‘A importância de ser – antologia‘

Visiting times: tue—sat. | 3 — 7PM
— Free entrance

This retrospective exhibition brings together works presented in various solo and group exhibitions between 2009 and 2025. Covering various formats and languages—such as drawing, photography, collage, and ceramics—these pieces belong to both private collections and the artist’s personal archive.

Exhibitions:
family project – abuse (2009)
a collection of self-portraits (2010)
morgue (2012)
when this kind of fire starts (2013)
ilha (2013)
o fim e o rapto (2014)
não sou um homem, sou uma montanha (2015)
family project – ensaios de santidade (2019)
pacto (2022)
agonia no jardim (2025)

Book launch
‘A importâcia de ser – antologia‘

14 oct, 6PM
Rua das Gaivotas 6, Lisboa

17 oct
Festival Fólio, Óbidos

“The Importance of Being” was a serial and multidisciplinary project developed between 2012 and 2022, which took as its starting point the lives and works of artists and thinkers whose influence has been fundamental throughout my personal and artistic journey. For ten years, I devoted myself to researching figures such as António de Macedo (2012-2013), Simone de Beauvoir (2013-2014), Agustina Bessa-Luís (2014-2016), Paul B. Preciado (2016-2017), Georges Bataille (2018 -2019), Alan Turing (2019-2020), and Marguerite Duras (2021-2022) – establishing deep connections with each of them, integrating their philosophies, their thoughts, methods of creation, and ways of navigating the world, offering creative, and inevitably subjective, perspectives on their legacies.

I effortlessly dissolved into their respective universes. Suddenly, I was part of them. And it was from this awareness that I began to develop this series.

Now that I was part of their universes, the next steps were intuitive; like a method actor, I conducted detailed and obsessive research, seeking to immerse myself as fully as possible in their lives – not with the aim of constructing realistic characters or narrating their biographies, but of allowing their existences to overflow through my body. For me, the body is as much molecules, cells, flesh, bones, hair, fluids, as it is paper, fabric, ink, plastic, lights, moving images…

These figures are united by the creation of their own rules and their resistance to conventionalism within societies that, despite promoting themselves as champions of equality, freedom, and fraternity, have remained repressive, punitive, and restrictive to this day.

The texts gathered here begin with the third work in the series, The Importance of Being Agustina Bessa-Luís, since for the first, The Importance of Being Macedo, I used texts that were appropriations of other texts. In other words, texts that were not written from scratch. And for that very reason, I thought they would be out of place in this book. With The Importance of Being Simone de Beauvoir, the second work in the series, I chose not to use the word, and so I did not write during the creative process. It was from The Importance of Being Paul B. Preciado that I began to publish artist’s editions—books that give access to part of my research, quotes, appropriations, processes, thoughts, feelings, images. Texts to be read aloud, diary essays, essayistic diaries, immersions in the vast territories of strangers who became close friends.

in addition to bringing together previously published texts, this book also includes unpublished texts – such as those written for The Importance of Being Augustina Bessa-Luís, in partnership with creators Diogo Bento and Tiago Vieira, as well as others written for performances, conferences, and magazines.

I also decided to add technical listings of the works to the texts, which serve as evidence of all the people involved in their creation, without whom it would not have been possible to make them. They can also serve as a reminder that all the presentation formats I use are interconnected, inform each other, and are part of a whole, although they can be enjoyed separately.

Peformance reenactments
by Teatro Praga

(co-prod. Temps d’Images Festival)

15 — 25 oct
Tickets soon

Wed 15 › 8PM – teatro #2, de 2005, por Cláudia Jardim
Thu 16 › 8PM – mb #6, de 2008, por Diogo Bento
Fri 17 › 8PM – mb #6, de 2018 por André e. Teodósio
+
Sat, 18 › 5PM – teatro #2, de 2005, por Cláudia Jardim; 6.15PM– mb #6, de 2008, por Diogo Bento; 7.45PM – mb #6, de 2018 por André e. Teodósio

Wed, 22 › 8PM – mb #6, de 2018 por André e. Teodósio
Thu, 23 › 8PM – teatro #2, de 2005, por Cláudia Jardim
Fri, 24 › 8PM – mb #6, de 2008, por Diogo Bento
+
Sat, 25 › 5PM – mb #6, de 2018 por André e. Teodósio; 6.40PM – mb #6, de 2008, por Diogo Bento; 8.15PM – teatro #2, de 2005, por Cláudia Jardim

teatro #2 (2005)
reenacted by Cláudia Jardim

preface is the title Bonneville gave to a series of performances staged between 2003 and 2006. These performances, almost always unique, did not require rehearsals and assumed a raw and unfinished aesthetic. Bonneville considers this series a preface to his later work, serving as an introduction to his artistic language.

In this performance, as in Study for a Manifesto (presented in May of the same year), Bonneville decided to base his work on improvisation. He was inspired by his ideas about what theater was and what it meant to be an actor before he entered drama school—he saw both as a process anchored in documentary exploration, where the actor played himself rather than creating a character. In theater #2, Bonneville improvised for an hour—the length of a miniDV cassette—in front of a camera in nightshot mode, while the audience watched the footage being projected in real time.

mb#6 

m̶i̶g̶u̶e̶l̶  bonneville series (2006-2012) — a set of autobiographical and allegorical performances that explore the complexities of personal narratives. like chapters in a book, each of its nine parts (from #1 to #9) addresses themes such as love, loss, identity, survival, death, and transformation. between personal investigations into family dynamics and broader questions about social norms and gender roles, the series offers a simultaneously personal and fictional look at what shapes us, through a profound inquiry into identity, emotional relationships, and individual journeys.

mb#6 offers an autobiographical immersion focused on questions of identity and friendship. bonneville collaborated with several women who have marked her personal and artistic journey, inviting them to share their stories in the form of video portraits—reflecting on what it means to be a woman, an adult, and an artist. on stage, bonneville doubles these testimonies live, creating a collective portrait that seeks to transcend the idea of individuality. A decade after its premiere, Bonneville returned to present the performance in a new version in 2018.

mb#6 (2008)
reenacted by Diogo Bento

co-creation: sofia arriscado, joana craveiro, joana linda, rita só, cláudia varejão, sara vaz.

in the first version of the performance, bonneville interviewed six women who had several things in common, in particular an autobiographical approach to art. this affinity became one of the central focuses of the performance, along with questions about childhood, life experiences, perspectives on feminism, religion, and death.

mb#6 (2018)
reenacted by André e. Teodósio

co-creation: Isadora Alves, Joana Craveiro, Isabela Figueiredo, Maria Gil, Carlota Lagido, Joana Linda, Mariana Sá Nogueira, Rita Só, Cláudia Varejão, Sara Vaz.

in the 2018 version, bonneville interviewed five of the six women who participated in the previous version, adding five new interviewees. the same presentation format was maintained: video portraits with live dubbing, unified under a single voice. the performance revisited themes such as identity, biography, and intimacy, broadening the focus to themes such as love, fear, and death.