António Bolota’s work derives from his keenly developed knowledge of space and the way in which we behave within it. His works frequently spring from the elements that structure the places we inhabit and which condition the way we live, interact and behave. António Bolota’s sculptural lexicon is therefore composed of walls, beams, doors, pillars and every type of element that we associate with the universe of civil construction, and which, because they are so familiar, frequently become invisible. What is not at all familiar or probable is the way in which Bolota shows these elements to us, frequently displaced from their normal locations and uses, and from their customary scales and formats. The transformation to which the artist submits these objects always leads to a subversion of our expectations as to the functioning of the physical world, leaving us to contend with a feeling of perplexity, with that giddiness that always occurs whenever our eyes reveal to us something that our body can’t believe.

Labour is António Bolota’s first anthological exhibition. In it, we find pieces that were created specifically for the spaces of Culturgest, together with some of the fundamental pieces from his artistic career.