“We have an audience interested in video-art that is now growing in size”

In May, the launch of a brand new space in Largo do Chiado – hotel Le Consulat – is celebrated with the collective exhibition Panorama. We find Nuno Lacerda among the artists involved. This is a project that he is currently working on, alongside the endeavor that he will display at MNAC (Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea), also located in Chiado, along with the remaining four finalists of the Sonae Media Art award.

Nuno Lacerda, born in Lisbon, lives in the city and works in different fields. With a degree in Fine Arts, his efforts are mainly focused on illustration, video and photography, even though he also devotes himself to music and theater.

Simultaneously with his individual artistic work, he also develops educational activities for a youth audience with special needs at the Painting Studio of AFID Diferença Foundation and at Berardo Collection Museum, projects in which he likes to engage himself intensively, even admitting that they have an influence on his individual work: “I believe that there is always something typical of me which ends up becoming visible in the final outcome”. Additionally, the work he unfurls in cultural institutions sometimes demands from him to concatenate collaborations with other artists and instructors. In those, “the work may totally differ from my comfort zone, which is good!”.

Exploring brand new areas is a palpable flavor in Lacerda’s work, who does not conceal the responsibility he feels as a finalist for the Sonae Media Art prize. “Tons of candidates were turned down in favor of my work. It’s a stimulus that gives me confidence.”

In the contest’s first stage, he competed with three videos of the Mapas series, as well as with the Clique project. For the final project, which will be displayed at MNAC by the end of the year, and one that will be assessed by the jury in order to choose the overall winner, he assures that he will give continuity to the work already presented in his application, “however with a divergent trait”. “It’s some sort of a leap, one that I have been wanting to take for a long time now, it’s still soon to understand if I’m going to be able to fulfill my own expectations or not.”

Alongside this contest, Lacerda has already been part of several festivals. Last year, he participated in the PRYECTOR at Matadero, in Madrid, with the video Escadote, his latest individual work. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t be present, but video-art has this great advantage where we can be part of several festivals throughout the world with relative ease. In my case, the gateway for these opportunities has been the FUSO Festival, organized by Dupla Cena, which also shows the videos abroad through numerous partnerships that they have.”