Carlos Arteiro (Vila do Conde, 1992) holds a degree in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (2015), where he received a merit scholarship, and a Master's degree in Contemporary Artistic Practices from the same institution (2017). He was an Erasmus scholar at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense University of Madrid (2014-15). He was a finalist for the 2018 Novo Banco Revelação award, granted by the Serralves Foundation. In 2021, he opened the solo exhibition “Investigações de um peixe dourado”, and in 2023, "Máscara de três bicos" at the No-No gallery in Lisbon.
Carlos Arteiro, Guilherme de Sousa, and Pedro Azevedo are the three artists who participated in the residency at No Entulho – an Artworks program – and who share a common interest in the awakening of consciousness. The result of their work is now being presented together in Porto, at mala voadora, under the title Disfarce, disfarce (Disguise, Disguise).
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Carlos Arteiro operates within the realm of fiction. He transports us to a place different from where we are, instead taking us to the world of the characters of the commedia dell'arte (once again referencing theater in his work), particularly Arlecchino, through Giorgio Agamben's interpretation of Pulcinella. It is Arlecchino that Arteiro represents in this exhibition, in images that, despite being paintings, have an ambiguous nature, resembling what we associate with photography and virtual reality. The representation of Arlecchino thus gains a visual freedom parallel to the character's own freedom: his behavior is free because it is foreign to the usual relationship established between consciousness and social representation in daily life and, in particular, in politics. It is a libertarian, pre-political behavior. Like Pasolini, Agamben offers an ideological reading of humor and grace, identifying connections between philosophy and comedy that blur the lines between the two. In light of this possibility, the combination of the works of these three artists brings us back to the devices of the Sousa/Azevedo duo, allowing the audience, when standing before the mirrors, to confront the experience of their own grace, or the political experience of relating their potential for grace with their self-awareness.
And, when we reach this identification between philosophy and comedy, it seems even more fitting that this project is being held here, at mala voadora.
