GALERIA FILOMENA SOARES

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• "Bread and Circuses," or "panem et circenses," is an expression attributed to the poet Juvenal that appears in his work "Satires", written between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. in Ancient Rome. Juvenal describes the lower classes of Roman society as corrupt, apathetic, and dependent on the bread and circuses provided by the Roman Empire. In those days, the emperor’s administration became known for distributing wheat to feed the people, while also providing spectacles for their entertainment. The expression "bread and circuses" came to be associated with politicians’ manipulation of the population, encouraging those with little interest in social issues to focus on simple pleasures such as food and entertainment. It is believed that the Roman aristocracy harbored a strong contempt for the lower classes, and the divide between the different social strata was very pronounced. The Roman amphitheater served as a stage for gladiators to combat, glorifying violence and the struggle between individuals. The state promoted various forms of entertainment, such as games, combat, and other spectacles, manipulating both the participants and the audience to promote ideals such as courage, pride, identity, and strength. These values became a means of social advancement for the people, while safeguarding and concealing the values and powers of the ruling elite. The amphitheater becomes the arena, the public space that serves the state’s authoritarianism, and the place where theater will later develop as a space for fantasy and the projection of the individual. The arena and the amphitheater thus also become spaces for political and ethical demands, and the arena is the place where barbarism is assimilated. When staged—even though it is real—it becomes distant because it happens to others and not to us. Western culture and art still exist within this arena, and are at a critical juncture for questioning themselves in the face of imminent ecological and social collapse and the transformation of their empires.
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  Pedro Barateiro | Pão e Circo / Bread & Circus

  Tot 14 nov 2026

  
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• The present exhibition by Sandra Baía brings together a group of works that, contrary to what is common in artistic practices, possess neither a formal identity nor an apparent theme that unites them. Some of the works stem from lines of inquiry that the artist has developed recurrently and systematically, such as the chromatic and mirrored wall sculptures or the polished steel sculptures ( Palma and Cabeça de Cão, both 2026), which coexist with a new group of sculptures incorporating fluorescent lights — in fact, LEDs — and rubber tubes ( Vetores Invisíveis, 2026), pointing towards a different imaginary, perhaps closer to an industrial aesthetic, both through the repetition of elements and through the industrially manufactured origin of their components. This construction of the exhibition as a divergent ensemble is, however, only apparent, because the different works stem from an interest in the way an intuitive rationale, grounded in the experience of a place, may be either a memory of the artist or the very place in which the works are installed. This ensemble can, however, be aesthetically translated into a language that is foreign to that very place. To say that this body of work revolves around Sandra Baía’s experience on the island of Príncipe tells us nothing about the meaning of the works, but it does reflect upon her working process and, consequently, upon its meaning — that of the process itself, rather than of the works in themselves; and at the centre of this process is translation, the conversion of one language into another: of a situation into an object, of one reference into something else, of the experience of a place into a constructive possibility. What remains, evidently, concealed is the process of conversion, of mutation — that is, how a sensation of a place or a memory is transformed into an object which, in turn, evokes other memories and references.
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  Sandra Baia | Cabeça de Cão

  Tot 14 nov 2026

  
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