Vhils at Great Artists on Campus #1: art, city and memory in discussion

The Great Artists on Campus #1 held another session in Porto, at the Batalha Centro de Cinema, on 10 April. This time featuring Portuguese artist Vhils, continuing a programme that brings contemporary creators closer to audiences through moments of sharing and conversation.

The session began with a screening of several of the artist’s audiovisual works, including Raised by Wolves, a music video directed by the artist himself, allowing the audience a first contact with his aesthetic and conceptual universe.

The works presented during the session explored the relationship between the human and the metropolis, using a language marked by slow motion, the tension between silence and music, and a strong contemplative dimension. Through these works, Vhils’ interest in the memory embedded in urban spaces became evident, viewing the city as a living archive composed of historical layers that remain physically close, even if temporally distant.

After the screening, the artist joined the session online for a conversation led by João Sousa Cardoso, Director of the Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication at Lusófona University. The dialogue explored the artist’s creative processes, as well as the political, social and symbolic dimensions of his work.

“Alexandre Farto, better known as Vhils, is one of the most relevant contemporary creators of our time, with a solid international career, working from Portugal and developing a true archaeology of cities,” highlighted Sousa Cardoso.

During the conversation, Vhils reflected on his artistic practice as a process of excavation and revelation, seeking to make visible the multiple layers that constitute the urban fabric. Intervention in the street emerges, in this context, as a space of collaboration and intersection between different perspectives, where apparent visual chaos is transformed into language. “The most archaic model we can have of data is the streets,” stated the artist, highlighting how urban spaces accumulate information, memory and identity over time.

The discussion also addressed themes such as the privatisation of public and digital space, understood as new layers of dispute and reflection within the artistic field. The artist emphasised the relationship between his creative process and a logic close to decoding, comparing the reading of city walls to an almost algorithmic exercise of interpreting what is visible and what remains hidden.

The session thus highlighted how Vhils’ work articulates art, memory and politics, proposing a critical reading of contemporary cities and their transformations.

Once again, by bringing together screening and discussion, the Great Artists on Campus #1 conference cycle reinforced its role as a platform for sharing and reflection, bringing artists, students and audiences closer around the practices and issues that shape contemporary creation.

View Event Photos on ULusófona’s Facebook

Text
Gabriel Motta

Coverage
Gabriel Motta
Lara Sousa
Paulo Renato

Video Editing
Gabriel Motta

Photo Editing
Paulo Renato