MILLEFLEURS (2025)

“Millefleurs”, an exhibition by artist Ana Pinho Vargas, was developed during her residency at X Portingaloise – International Early Dance and Music Festival, held from November 2024 to March 2025. In this body of work, the photographer seeks to explore the essence of femininity in modern society. The exhibition was created in parallel with Ensemble Portingaloise’s new production, “Millefleurs – O regresso à clausura dos outros”, which premiered on March 29. This stage work features dramaturgy and direction by Pedro Ribeiro and musical direction by Ana Mafalda Castro. To record her intimate and complicit perspective throughout the creative process, Ana Pinho Vargas combined photography, drawing, and painting, crafting a rich visual tapestry that reflects the inner journey of women as artists and performers. Each piece captures choreographic gestures, subtle details and movement, inviting viewers to engage with the emotional and physical narratives woven into her art. Her creations illustrate the subtle complexities of femininity, merging diverse artistic mediums into a symphony of visual storytelling. Through Millefleurs, Vargas initiates a dialogue on the role of women in contemporary culture and the arts. This exhibition presents 52 new works produced during her residency, including digital and analog photographs, paintings, drawings, collages and sketches.

PORTINGALOISE – International Early Dance and Music Festival combines creation/performance, training, and research related to the choreographic heritage of Europe from the 15th to the 19th centuries. It is promoted by Portingaloise Associação Cultural e Artística in partnership with Kale Cooperativa Cultural and the Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos da Universidade de Coimbra | Projeto Mundos e Fundos. Since its first edition in 2015, the festival has been committed to bringing together artists, researchers, and enthusiasts of this repertoire, exploring both disciplinary and aesthetic connections by reflecting on historical content within present-day space and time, and deeply researching how the contemporary body responds to movement and gesture defined in different contexts. Far from being merely a dance or music festival, it fosters the observation of the relationship between these two areas during the modern era, advocating for a contextualization supported by social and economic history, as well as the broader arts. In its 10th edition, it inaugurates a new collaboration, proposing a tangible look at an ephemeral scenic event, reconciling processes and promoting the meeting of times, spaces, of a new creation as a spectacle and exhibition.

Exhibition by invitation of Portingaloise – Associação Cultural e Artística, as part of The X PORTINGALOISE – International Early Dance and Music Festival 24.25.

Espaço Corpus Christi, Vila Nova de Gaia

MAY 6th 2025 - JUNE 8th 2025