Staring Contest #5




Work of art seeks work of art for Staring Contest — an open call for MUSEU occupation.

As we learned when we were kids, in a staring contest, one cannot smile, blink or even look away. All those things are subjected to the ultimate penalty: defeat. When two bodies face each other in a Staring Contest, the tension between them is too evident. There is no place for compromise.

In this curatorial project, we ask the artistic community (and beyond) to suggest one or more objects that can be partnered up with the exhibited work.

In this fifth moment, from October 26th to February 2nd, a partner was sought for Pedro Pires’s Container #8 (2018).

After the deliberation of the jury, this edition of Staring Contest features an object proposed by Rafael Vieira + Liliana Marante [TdC], in response to the already announced work. The relationship between Container #8 and Festa Feliz seemed to the jury to be the most appropriate, taking into account the curatorial assumption, despite the quality of the various proposals submitted.

Let’s play a Staring Contest. One body facing another. They must stare at each other. Whoever smiles, looks away or blinks loses. To be still, but not motionless: the play is on as it games on lethargy. A contribution to a symmetry of intentions, broken by the asymmetry on the surface.

Daniel Madeira

Pedro Pires uses a variety of media, techniques and heavily utilitarian and industrially produced everyday objects. He develops communication strategies, with the human figure being a constant element in his work. He works mainly in sculpture and drawing and at the intersection of these media, seeking ambivalence strategies with figurative and conceptual approaches.

His research oscillates between three main subjects: a sense of displaced identity, migration, and human rights. The social, political and economic asymmetries of his position in the territories of Angola and Portugal direct his reflections and question his sense of identity and belonging. The present is examined to reflect on the future.

The exhibitions and projects in which he has participated include: Sculpture in the City, London (United Kingdom); Fondation Montresso, Marrakech (Morocco); Cartasia Biennial, Lucca (Italy); Fondation Blachere, Apt (France); Biso Biennial, Burkina Faso; Natural History Museum of Angola, Luanda (Angola); Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (Canada); Lagos Biennial, Lagos (Nigeria); Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, and Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (South Africa); Expo Chicago, Chicago (USA); Festival Política, Lisbon, Braga and Évora (Portugal); Delfina Foundation, London (United Kingdom); Hangar, Lisbon (Portugal).


Rafael Vieira was born in Coimbra in 1979. A journalist and an architect, he has a master’s degree in Urban Rehabilitation and is a postgraduate student in Collaborative Investigative Journalism at the Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Coimbra. He manages the online archive CoimbraStreetArt and is an activist in the civic groups “Eu Também Coimbra” and “Coimbr’a Pedal”. He is one of the founders, gatherers and facilitator of the [TdC] project;

Liliana Marante was born in Águeda in 1985. A psychologist and massage therapist, she has a master’s degree in Systemic Psychology and is a postgraduate student in Dance and Movement in Psychotherapy at the FPCE, Universidade de Coimbra. She is an activist in the “Coimbr’a Pedal” collective. She is one of the founders of the [TdC] project.

Presentation of the project Tipos de Coimbra [TdC] [Types of Coimbra]
Tipos de Coimbra [TdC] is a non-profit museological-aspiring project that aims to rescue shop and advertising signs extant on Coimbra’s façades, which are at risk of loss or destruction, removing them from the streets and preserving them in a dynamic collection. It lives at the intersection of memory, history, art and technology as a temporal testimony of a genius loci and timelessness for the re-signification of a sense of belonging. As a project permanently under construction, which grows with each salvage, the aim is also to restore and exhibit the elements reclaimed from the streets. The collection now has twenty-nine pieces, featuring neon glass elements, acrylic light boxes, metal plates and other artefacts from different decades, which bear witness to different eras of the graphic image of the city of Coimbra, while aiming to restore these graphic, technological and topographical elements that once populated the urban landscape. The project’s final goal is to evolve into a museum structure to promote exhibitions and publications so that the technologies and topography of these signs can be made known to the public, while preserving the stories of the brands, companies and people contained in these elements. In addition to the current collection, negotiations are underway to salvage around a dozen signs in Coimbra and neighbouring towns.