Body in Action

Beatriz Albuquerque presents her solo retrospective exhibition ‘Corpo em Ação’ (Body in Action) from July 12, 2025 to September 6, 2025 at Vila Velha Museum in Vila Real, Portugal.

Beatriz Albuquerque has a BA/BFA from Faculty of Fine Arts of Porto, an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Doctorate from Columbia University, City of New York. Beatriz Albuquerque won multiple awards such as the Myers Award from Columbia University, New York, The Revelation Award at the 17th Cerveira Biennial, in Portugal as well as the ‘Ambient Series’ Award, PAC/Edge Performance Festival, Chicago.

This new solo exhibition showcases various interdisciplinary artistic and performative projects by Beatriz Albuquerque, such as Wonder Memories (Pilgrims of Memory) which is about the Portuguese diaspora; Crisis of Luck (Crisis in Luck), which won the Revelation Award at the 17th Cerveira Biennial, in which Beatriz offers the public a solution to all problems in the form of a fortune cake; or Activism (part of the Guerilla project) – a game and video art piece created to spark revolution and positive activism in all of us, which won the Myers Art Prize in New York and was selected by the director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum to be burned, in an act of protest, part of a campaign against austerity in art in Italy.

On July 12, 2025, at 4 pm, Beatriz Albuquerque will present a performance that is part of the exhibition, another of her ongoing projects, Trabalho de Graça (Work For Free). In this action, Beatriz offers the creation of a work of art requested by the participants. Each visitor will be able to order a piece, choosing from different media – painting, drawing, photography, performance, artist book, video, mail art, among others – and determine all the characteristics of the work. The only requirement is that the visitor provides the materials (canvas, paper, paint, etc.) and waits for the work to be completed. In some cases, the visitor will be able to witness the creation of the work. With this project, Beatriz Albuquerque continues to explore a desire to bring art closer to life and, simultaneously, our search for the democratization of art, thought and culture. Beatriz will close the exhibition with a performance scheduled for September 6, 2025 at 4pm.