Masksmascaras

"Masks have a long-standing place in the history of societies, having been used for everything from tools of control to protective gear. But they also have a subversive aspect capable of questioning the status quo. Often understood as representations of actual, desired, or imposed social personas, masks hold a special relation to identity, signaling specific attributes and capacities of a person—or the lack thereof. [. ] As a symptom of an era of extreme transformation, masking has gained renewed traction and urgency. From the online avatars used for activism, entertainment, or propaganda to the different dynamics either emptying or occupying our streets, practices of caricature, camouflaging, face swapping, masquerading, mimicry, protection, ridicule, social makeup, and transformation have become a staple of our everyday ritualized lives. Could we, therefore, speculate about an ongoing transformation from Macho’s facial society into a mask(ed) society? Employing and underlining the subversive potential of masking, this exhibition looks into the ongoing radical reshaping of our multiple historical, sociopolitical, gendered, and transcendental identities, inquiring about current processes through which we shape-shift from one to the other. " —Valentinas Klimašauskas, João Laia