Group exhibitions that he has participated in include the União Latina Prize, at Culturgest, Lisbon and Ficção Vs. Realidade, at CAM, in 2007; Disarming Matter, at Dunkers kulturhus, Helsinborg, Sweden, in 2009; Road Festival 01, at Bad Driburg, Germany, in 2011; and Tarefas Infinitas [Infinite Tasks], at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in 2010.

In recent years, the press has referred to the importance of several of his exhibitions, like Stargate, organized by Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2006), Putting Fear in its Place, at Chiado 8, Lisbon (2008), and Viagem ao Meio, at the ZDB gallery, Lisbon (2010).

Other significant solo shows include Radiação Solar e Forças Cósmicas [Solar Radiation and Cosmic Forces] at the Graça Brandão Gallery, Lisbon, in 2007 and Uma ilha no tecto do mundo [An island on the roof of the world] at the MARZ gallery, Lisbon, in 2010.

During 2013, he had solo shows at the Octagon at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil, and at Flat Time House, London. He is also completing a doctorate on ‘the concretism of the image in movement’, an investigation whose final results were presented at an exhibition in Serralves, in June 2013.

Film and video are the central media in the practice of Alexandre Estrela, who defines it as an approach of “formal and conceptual issues arising from the intersection of images and matter”. Having a broad technical and historical knowledge of the media he uses, the artist creates complex systems taking advantage of the characteristics of the various devices: the camera, the video projector, the screen and the perceptual reception of images. Visual effects, associations of sound and image, creation of synopses and titles which sometimes correspond to the image and sometimes not, as well as the transformation of the architecture of the space, are strategies frequently used by the artist to deconstruct the usual means of perception and knowledge of objects and space.

To create misunderstandings, mislead, lead to decoding, require decisions, are processes induced by the artist, who is interested in the coexistence of several layers of meaning and levels of perception, in an attempt to activate a critical consciousness in the viewer.

Biography provided by the artist

May 2013