A Salt Anthology (2023)
In collaboration with Kevin Bellò and Joana Viveiros

Sea salt from salinas de Aveiro and salinas do Samouco, algae and ashes, ceramics, samphire, homemade bread, reeds, cotton, blown glass, mud and found objects, lime, granadilha, wood sorrels and pickled magnolia petals.

‘A Salt Anthology’ is a poetic reflection on the relationships that make up an ecosystem. By focusing on the current fragile state of the salt pans of Aveiro and Samouco (PT), the artists composed a vibrant new body of work that reflects on materials, ideas and stories of the land. Studying salt, algae, rushes, mud, samphire and other beings, the exhibition is framed as a collection of visual stories where scientific knowledge mixes with craft and speculation. The exhibition features various artistic representations, such as a tablecloth that symbolises the topography of saltworks in bird view, bones and branches arranged as unreadable writings, and weaved rushes as speculative containers of ideas. As artworks and curatorial ‘tales’ narrate the hidden journey of sea salt and its origin, land and imagination reveal to talk interchangeable languages.

At Rua das Gaivotas 6, Lisboa (PT), in partnership with Quinta das Relvas, Goethe-Institut and Contemporânea.

Photographs by Samuel Duarte.