For the Project Space of the Modern Collection at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Irineu Destourelles (Santo Antão, Cape Verde, 1974) presented a selection of four videos resulting from a crossover between writing and film.

In his works, the artist explores the perpetuation of colonial practices and values in the present day and their impact on the formation of social and power relations in which the experience of discursive violence takes centre stage. His work also focusses on the experience of the diaspora vis-à-vis linguistic, cultural and geographic duality, accompanied by a sensation of loss (of falling), difference and opposition.

The title of this exhibition, Subtitulizar [Subtitling], refers to the action of ‘making’ subtitles, the verb form of the noun ‘subtitle’, a neologism in Portuguese created by the artist which evokes the habitual presence of Portuguese subtitles in foreign films, in the cinema and on television, a nostalgic memory of his childhood.

The text by Rita Fabiana, the exhibition curator, focuses on the most relevant aspects of the artist’s work from a diachronic perspective.

This bilingual edition is published as part of the editorial line of the Project Space.