miguel soares

Unlovable
curated by Pedro Cabral Santo

November 23 > December 21, 2000
Sala do Veado, Museu Nacional de História Natural
Lisbon, Portugal

174×129cm
2000
c print
(text by Pedro Cabral Santo)

made for Unlovable, Sala do Veado, Museu Nacional de História Natural, Lisbon, Portugal

Prints from a second city, made during 2000.

see also : X city

Z city 001, 50×120 cm

Z city 002, 50×120 cm

Z city 003, 50×120 cm

Z city 004, 50×70 cm

Z city 005, 50×70 cm

Z city 006, 50×70 cm

Z city 007, 50×120 cm

Z city 008, 50×120 cm

Z city 009, 50×120 cm

Z city 010, 50×120 cm

Z city 011 (doreimon), 50×70x16 cm, Duratrans on lightbox

Z city 012, 50×70 cm

Z city 013, 50×120 cm

Z city 014, 50×120 cm

Z city 015, 50×120 cm

Z city 016, 50×120 cm

Contaminantes / Comunicantes, 10 Artistas + 10 Arquitectos
curated by Paulo Mendes

October 10 > 29, 2000
Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes
Lisbon, Portugal

work shown: Archibunk3r Associates

2000
07′12”
audio: “Ebb”, Sack & Blumm, TomLab, 1999

Archibunk3r Associates is a video portfolio of an architecture and design bureau based on Mars, in a distant future.
AA are the authors of teleport centers, stadiums, satelites, the Channel of Light, the SofaGuard ™, Hard Disc, the
Multi Purpose Vehicle used in Time for Space, and Tower city, among others.
.
“In Archibunk3r Associates, a kind of prototype catalogue from an architecture and design studio from the future,
we find once again Miguel Soares obsession with the artificial environment in which life in technologically developed
societies or in imagined future societies takes place.
A sense of melancholy, to a great extent given by the music, inhabits this images of idealized architecture and objects.
We do not know for sure to what the sense of loss is due to – if to a world extinct, the city as a space of sociability and
the experience of nature as a tangible reality, if to an utopian society based on technological advances as an instrument
of progress and well-being. ”
Miguel Wandschneider in SlowMotion – Miguel Soares, ESTGAD, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal

Sister Spaces
Go To Frisco
curated by Natxo Checa / Galeria ZDB

September 09 > October 28, 2000
Southern Exposure at Project Artaud
San Francisco, USA

exhibited works: Time for Space

related links: Go To Frisco at ZeDosBois.org

Easyview 001
curated by Francisco Vaz Fernandes

September 2000
Lounge
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works: untitled (wc)

Untitled (wc)
2000, duratrans on lightbox, 50×70x18 cm

Air Portugal
curated by João Simões & Miguel Soares

May 10 > June 02, 2000
London Art Biennale
director: David Medalla
Shoreditch Town Hall
London, UK

exhibited works: Time for Space

miguel soares 2000
Solo exhibition

February 25 > March 19, 2000
Galeria Monumental
Lisbon, Portugal

exhibited works:

• untitled (story) image diptic
• Time for Space prints
• Time for Space 3D animation
• Gustavo v1.2
• Gustavo v1 print (80×60 cm)

.

eexhibition views

Gustavo v1.2

05′00”
text: João Simões. voice: Lula Pena and João Simões. sound design: Ari de Carvalho
music: “Mortícia”, “The chequered flag”, Combustile Edison, 1996. “I’m such a small thing”, Funki Porcini, 1996

“(…) Miguel Soares is a science fiction artist, someone who makes futuristic works that comment on aspects of contemporary human life.
His Time for Space (2000) is perfect editorial on Portugal’s present moment. Like some futuristic tourism commercial, Soares’ frolicking UFOs call upon us to journey with them to fantastic places where we can finally gain an all-encompassing sense of belonging.
However, we are never made to feel sure what the purpose of belonging is. While the upbeat tone of the work indicates positive possibilities, there is a subtle undercurrent that suggests that we are being invited to some darker cultish or militaristic venture.
Soares’ delicious ambiguity relates back to the reason I felt the title Situation Zero was such an apropriate description of the state of portuguese contemporary artmaking: the possibilities of its future are promising yet unknown.”
René de Guzman, in Situation Zero: Recent Art from Portugal. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. San Francisco. USA, August 2001
.

In a society located in a distant future, the promises of happiness are packed with images and sounds of publicity: images of flying saucers flying over seas and crossing the universe are underlined by alienating music and the reading of a text promoting wonderful journeys into unknown worlds.
As one understands at the end of the video, the shift from a feminine voice to a masculine one signals the shift from an travel agency campaign into a military enrolment one.
The illusion of adventure and freedom co-exists with the nightmare of a dictatorial society aimed towards the control of individuals.
Miguel Wandschneider, in SlowMotion – Miguel Soares. exhibition depliant. ESTGAD+Art Attack. Caldas da Rainha. Portugal.

Time for Space images
Duratrans on lightboxes
30×40x16 cm each

tfs 001

tfs 002

tfs 003

tfs 004

tfs 005