Ângela Ferreira, Casa Maputo: Um retrato íntimo, 1999
Ângela Ferreira, Casa Maputo: Um retrato íntimo, 1999

MNAC

entry: General Conditions

No Place at All

Ângela Ferreira

2003-10-24
2004-01-18
Curatorship: Pedro Lapa
This is the first exhibition to present an anthology of Angela Ferreira's work. Since the beginning of the 1990s, she has been working on proj­ects that question the critical possibilities of the sculptural practices inherited from modernity, and that confront the displacement of refer­ences of a cultural and  political nature. Her dual nationality,  Por­tuguese and South African, and above all her dual experience of both realities, lends her a sensibility towards and ability to reflect upon the places where cultural exchange occurs, where the forces and powers that configure identities play out. In the consistently unusual form in which objects images memories and architectures are organised in her work we can glimpse a strategy  of  inquiry which is not circum­scribed by culturalist determination, but which  rather implicates and confronts the most intimate aspects of the subject with global move­ments. Inhabiting this inconstant place, which at its heart underlies any cultural order or identity and differs from it at all times, is what pro­duces Angela Ferreira's sculptural work .
Many people have helped to make this exhibition possible. I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all those who have loaned works and can now share this opportunity with us to see them publicly exhibited. The team at Museu do Chiado - National Museum of Contemporary Art has, as always, performed with incomparable professionalism. Ana Sofia Nunes and Emilia Tavares were responsible for the production and Nuno Ferreira de Carvalho for media and publishing. All willingly contributed with ideas that have enriched the exhibition. Maria de Aires Silveira was responsible for registry and conservation, Alberto Julio Silva designed the educational programme. and Benvinda Silva and Angelina Pessoa handled all the secretarial work. Thomas Mul­caire in Cape Town gave valuable support during the preparation phase.
Andrew Renton, a long-time authority on the artist's work, has written a splendid essay for the catalogue that discovers subtle and determi­nant significations in Angela Ferreira's work.
I would like lo express my deepest gratitude to the museum’s institutional backers, the Fundação Banco  Comercial Português, whose financial support allowed the exhibition to be held.
My greatest thanks go to Ângela Ferreira, for making it possible to discover and share a truly unique body of work.

Pedro Lapa
Director, Museu do Chiado - Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea