Hugo de Almeida Pinho
Smoke and Mirrors

Opening 21.03.2025 19h00

Centro de Arte Oliva, São João da Madeira

Curated by Sara Castelo Branco

We highlight Hugo de Almeida Pinho’s participation in the group exhibition Smoke and Mirrors, featuring works by Abtin Sarabi, Andreia Santana, Diana Policarpo, Jane Jin Kaisen, Judy Chicago, Laura Huertas Millán, Riar Rizaldi, Rodrigo Hernández, and Saodat Ismailova.

Presenting a selection of works that intersect different geographical, cultural, and generational dynamics, After Smoke and Mirrors explores community, spiritual, and mystical practices that seek to connect us to a regenerative potential for social and ecological coexistence. Rooted in a non-dominant relationship with our surroundings, this exhibition project invokes magic and spirituality as countercultural configurations, opening up more sensitive possibilities for existence, action, and imagination for the future.

After Smoke and Mirrors thus questions the impact of human activities on the environment and cultural heritage, the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds, and the transmission of knowledge. It aims to create a slowed-down, immersive experience within the space, with a strong emphasis on film as a key medium—one that serves as a model for evoking and reanimating nearly vanished, invisible, and parallel worlds.