The CERA PROJECT announces the collaborative artistic research residency of the artist Rui Macedo and the curator Inês Valle, with the support of the Direção-Geral das Artes. The Boundless Borders residency is part of the Restoration and Enhancement Project of the Chamber of Discoveries (Sala das Descobertas) at the Palácio Nacional de Mafra, coordinated by Sérgio Gorjão and promoted by the National Palace of Mafra / Museus e Monumentos de Portugal, with philanthropic support from the Fundação Millennium bcp.

During their residency at CERA PROJECT, they have been dedicated to researching the twelve Portuguese paintings that disappeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century, which depicted the voyage and arrival of the Portuguese in India. The absence of these works has served as the starting point for a critical reflection on the historical narratives associated with the first contact between Portugal and India, and their reverberations in the present day. To this end, Rui Macedo and Inês Valle apply artistic and participatory methodologies that bring together contemporary creation and cultural mediation. This methodological approach includes research in museum collections in Portugal and India, as well as engagement with communities that maintain historical ties between the two countries, particularly those connected to the territories identified in the missing paintings — Goa, Kozhikode, Ponnani, Kochi and Diu.

Within this artistic process, listening and collaboration with these communities constitute a fundamental element in shaping a contemporary reinterpretation of the Chamber of Discoveries, where questions of identity, power, colonisation and cultural boundaries are reflected. In this way, the project proposed for the residency represents an opportunity for deeper exploration and knowledge-sharing, fostering a cross-cutting understanding of historical and cultural diversity.

This proposal takes shape through a transdisciplinary and multi-local programme, oriented towards intercultural dialogue and shared research, which will include talks, participatory sessions with communities, and a publication dedicated to the artistic research process and its outcomes, intending to contextualise the visual and symbolic narrative of the Discoveries Room at the National Palace of Mafra.

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Rui Macedo (Évora, 1975) is a Portuguese visual artist who works exclusively in painting and site-specific installations. He holds a PhD in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (2017). His practice interrogates the conventions of painting as both medium and exhibition form, challenging traditional notions of representation and authorship. Through perceptual strategies that unsettle the viewer’s expectations, Macedo expands the conceptual and spatial boundaries of painting, often creating works that resist conventional definitions of the medium. He has received prestigious institutional support, including grants from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Instituto Camões, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and FCT/CIEBA. His work has been presented in exhibitions at institutions such as Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado (Lisbon), MEIAC (Badajoz), Museu do Neorrealismo, Tabacalera (Madrid), and Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (Brazil). His works are held in prominent public and institutional collections across Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Brazil, including the Portuguese State Art Collection, Culturgest, MNAC, IVAM, MEIAC, and the Benetton Foundation.

www.ruimacedo.com

Inês Valle is a curator, artist, and creative producer whose practice is driven by international and interdisciplinary collaboration. She holds a BA in Fine Arts (Painting) and an MA in Curatorial Studies from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon. She is the founder of The CERA PROJECT, a non-profit cultural organisation that fosters artistic dialogue between the Global North and South, promoting narratives beyond Western frameworks. Valle has collaborated with leading institutions, including Centro Cultural de Belém, Museu Coleção Berardo, CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Canberra Contemporary Art, the National Museum of Lagos, and Artspace Aotearoa. At CAM Gulbenkian, she coordinated the Portuguese strand of the European lighthouse project Bauhaus of the Seas Sails. Her curatorial work spans mainly Europe, Africa and the Middle East and includes exhibitions with artists such as Ângela Ferreira, António Ole, Ai Weiwei, Edson Chagas, Pablo Bartholomew, Fábio Colaço, Marcelo Brodsky, Miguel Palma, Nikki Luna, Khaled Jarrar and Graeme Williams. Increasingly, her projects emphasise co-creation, community engagement, and transdisciplinary research, addressing questions of identity, ecology, postcolonial memory, and urban transformation.

www.inesvalle.com