miguel soares

130×200x70 cm
lamps, plexyglas, psychadelic sensors, speakers, wheels, etc.
made for Wallmate, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, 1995

During my years in the school of fine arts in Lisbon, the teaching methods were not in total contact with the contemporary reality happening outside. So it was as if we had to live double lives, me and my friends – Pedro Cabral Santo and Alexandre Estrela, among many others – working at school during the day, and planning exhibitions and discussing art the rest of the time, sometimes through the night.
Night Art School is a yellow Formica Box with 24 white lights, my age at the time. Psychadelic sensors make the lights react – through a red plexyglas – in 3 basic patterns to the ambient noise made by people inside the cistern of the school. This was alternated with 30 second spots of electronic music (mainly Kraftwerk and Negativland) to simulate the circadian cycle. The formica box/school building is shown as a maquete on top of two sculpture tripods – used for clay sculpting inside the school- over green grass.
The set reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. As if this was a scale model for a new experimental art school.
Wallmate was an exhibition I organized with Alexandre Estrela in the 5th and final year in the fine art school as a reaction to the academicist concepts prevailing inside the school.

image for the Wallmate catalogue.

Illustration for Vértice magazine. Text by Paulo Varela Gomes.
n.64, Jan/Feb, 1995.

Acabamentos de Luxo
curated by João Pinharanda

November 22, 1994 > January, 1995
Associação dos Arquitectos Portugueses
Banhos de S. Paulo
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: untitled (4), 1994, wood, wheels,duratrans,lamps, 40×160x260cm

1994
50×25x20 cm
metal boxes, image on duratrans, light, wheels, plexyglas.

related works: untitled (cabinets), 1993

made for: Qualquer Semelhança é Inevitável, Loja da Atalaia, Lisbon

23′00”
1994
video for Negativland’s “Crosley Bendix discusses the Copyright Act”, 1992

When I first heard “Crosley Bendix discusses the Copyright Act”, Negativland, Seeland Records, 1992, I was so amazed with the work, I felt I had to give everyone the chance to hear it. and since it’s copyright free, I made a video for that sound work.
I used their technique – razor tape editing – and put together hundreds of scenes from videos and tv, sometimes ilustrating the words, so that people would feel attracted by the fast sequence of scenes and stay and hear Negativlands work.
This was the first time I’ve shown a video in an exhibition.
Editing was made with two VHS Pal video recorders.
Copyright law was made for the 20 000 minutos de arte no Técnico exhibition in October 1994.

Miguel Soares 1994 – solo exhibition

March 24 > April 14, 1994
Galeria Monumental
Lisbon, Portugal

untitled (UFO over beach)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over L.A.) and view of the first room
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over snow)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels, ventilation fan

untitled (UFO over lake)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over national park)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

views of the second room

untitled (UFO over caribbean)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over rio)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over niagara)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO 4)
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

untitled (UFO over rio) detail
duratrans, light, wood, wheels

1994
40×70x200 cm
wood, wheels, tape, Cuprinol Transcolor
made for: Independent Worm Saloon, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon

When you put two stripes of tape along one side of an old car it becomes a racing car. Usually the car is a Toyota or Datsun from the seventies. I was interested in this cheap and highly aesthetic operation. I decided to try it on a wood monolith, and suddenly wheels appeared.
Racing was made for the Independent Worm Saloon exhibition, in 1994. Since this exhibition was about painting,the wood was previously painted with Cuprinol Transcolor.

O que é nacional é bom
curated by Pedro Cabral Santo

May 27 > June 12, 1993
Forum Prior do Crato
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: untitled (tropa, fado e vinho), 70×130 cm

MS AE HF AM
curated by Miguel Soares

March 04 > April 04, 1993
Galeria Monumental
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibition views, Miguel Soares
images, lamps, metal boxes, wheels, plexyglas, formica, etc

This was a group exhibition I organized in order to fill an empty space in the gallery program.
with: Miguel Soares (images, metal objects), Americo Marcelino (painting), Alexandre Estrela (painting) and Heitor Fonseca (painting).

invitation front/back

untitled (triptico), 1993
30×250cm
formica, metal boxes, plexyglas, lamps

Illustration for Vértice magazine. Text by Carlos Leite.
n.50, Sep/Oct, 1992.

Bus

Festas de Lisboa
Câmara Municipal de Lisboa

Miguel Soares 1992
solo exhibition

February 27 > March 22, 1992
Galeria Monumental
Lisbon, Portugal

room 1 view

untitled (heliglider)

untitled (nucleon)

untitled (vtol)

untitled (arts)

untitled (squares)

room 2 view

untitled (ufo)

untitled (blue pair)

untitled (taurus)

t shirt

Miguel Soares 1991
(1st solo exhibition)

May 16 > Jun 04, 1991
Galeria Monumental, Lisbon

untitled (pilot), 120×90 cm

untitled (spok) 80×490 cm

untitled (target) 110×120 cm

room 2, view 1

untitled (tahiti plage) 70×180 cm

room2, view 2

untitled (esposende) 150×100 cm

untitled (portugueses), 16 frames, 30×40 cm each
This work appears as a comment on Leonel Moura’s Portugal series, where the artist ellects already famous personalities of the portuguese history and culture like Amália Rodrigues, and Fernando Pessoa, placing the word “Portugal” (white on a black rectangle) over the eyes or mouth of each personality’s picture.
Portugueses shows eleven black and white faces of unknown portuguese people of all ages. I printed the images in my b/w photo lab at home, out of more than thousand glass negatives I had found buried on an open field near a prision in Lisbon in 1987. They document portuguese prisioners ranging from the1910’s to the 1940’s.
The word portugueses (portuguese in english) was placed in day-glo stickers, one word in each person’s forehead.

t-shirt ms91

1991, 40×90cm
Artstrike magazine exhibition
Galeria da Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa

“1990″
Miguel Mendonça
João Fonte Santa
Pedro Cabral Santo
Rui Silvares
Miguel Soares

Cisterna da Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: untitled (cambio style cabaret)

untitled (cambio style cabaret), 1990
40×180cm