Mauro Cerqueira’s method of working is multidisciplinary, encompassing not only photography, video and drawing but also performance, painting and sculpture. One of his preferred formats is printed publication, which enables him to elaborate on content in a narrative way. Cerqueira’s projects in recent years have been inspired by the environment in which he lived and worked in the old city district of Porto where his studio was situated in a building that has been razed meanwhile for redevelopment. In the alleyways of the district he found an inexhaustible repertoire of everyday scenes, people and objects; the residents and architecture of this traditional urban district on the threshold of change were made into the protagonists of his artistic works.

An artist’s book is appearing for the exhibition O Mundo Dos Cegos. It documents Cerqueira’s continuing observations of everyday life and change in the area around the old Rua dos Caldeireiros; in addition to video and photographic works, it forms an integral component of the overall work. Cerqueira’s video pieces are quiet, sensitive portraits of a milieu threatened by suppression and marginalization.

Cerqueira’s approach is shaped by authenticity and a deep bond with his subjects and questions a political and economic system that shuts out specific, traditional ways of life, attempting to banish them from the modern city.  Art and life are always indivisible in Cerqueira’s art, and it is this precise characteristic that constitutes his works’ power of expression and compelling urgency.

Mauro Cerqueira, born in 1982, lives and works in Porto. He has already participated in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe.