The long title of the exhibition my father is a dirty slutty transcendental girlie, at Espaço Caramujo in Almada, is already in itself a stirrer of consciences, a push forward of mentalities, a breaking down of prejudices and forms of representation in art.

The art curator, Alexandre Sequeira Lima, or rather the artist who had the idea of gathering these artists at Espaço Caramujo, as he prefers to be called, revealed some of the features of this exhibition, and some key ideas for its development. His curatorial attitude was not to impose an imposition on the artists in the choice of pieces present in the space, but rather, and precisely, to give the artists total freedom to choose what they would like to see represented in the exhibition. This freedom, and based on some guidelines left open by Lima, allowed the participants to establish a dialogue among themselves and to adapt the choices according to a greater and cohesive objective for the exhibition, namely that of being a space for a debate, for a discourse on the state of affections, of the social, political and even economic reality of the world.

One of Lima’s principles consisted in asking the artists present if they had works they would like to see exhibited and never had the opportunity. The result is a body of work that goes a little out of the current norm, and that nakedly, and without prejudice, proposes a reflection on gender issues, queer themes, sexual heterodoxy, minorities, transgender bodies, post-colonial theories, among other more adjacent, and subtle, but no less important themes.

It should be pointed out that at no point in the exhibition is the art of racial diversity and multiculturalism seen as an approach parallel to contemporary artistic reality; on the contrary, it is part of it, adds to it, and revitalises it. It is contemporary art par excellence. A far cry, fortunately, from the first, embryonic attempts, in the eighties, to integrate artists from African countries into western European curatorial programmes, where their works were still seen as local curiosities.

Another of the aspects to be taken into account in the exhibition is the attention given to the issue of racial diversity in the Queer theme.

The beauty in the selection made of works by Franco Zucchella, João Galrão and Michael Biello are an example of this. It reveals, in its sequence, a simple, subtle and assertive discourse that integrates ethnic and racial diversity, by right, in the queer context, and which for a long time, strange as it may seem, has been kept at a distance, for the already known reasons, much on account of European and American imperialism and centrism. From Zucchella’s simple painting, with generous and sweet brushstrokes developed from the European classics, to Galvão’s direct and assertive collages, which reveal the contrasts and social discrepancies, in a raw portrait of society, and the connections between sadomasochistic pleasure, slavery and human suffering, in the work context. This is soon followed by Biello, who offers us black and white photomontages of human, homoerotic figures, inscribed on backgrounds and architectural niches from religious temples, medieval and proto-Renaissance eras.

Soon after the sequence Zucchella, Galrão and Biello, we are taken by João Vinagre’s intricate and technologised images, conferring a new and forward-looking imagery. From the connection with the previous pieces, we are left not only with the possible analogies, but also with a subtle, and not so obvious, discourse on the senses, which may also be associated, due to its typology, with the unpredictable video installation by Rodrigo Miragaia, present in the exhibition, and which once again addresses themes linked to post-colonialism.

The Big Black Spurt, by João Vinagre, a digital photograph printed in ink jet of an explosion of a dam, is susceptible of having several interpretations, in the immediate, almost as if it were an exercise of Romchamp, polarizes the central theme of the exhibition, and allows a less predictable relationship with the works.

Alexandre Sequeira Lima, involves us in two moments of painting, a painting that he worked on while still a student of ar.co, and another, more recent, where it is possible to confront styles, which have naturally changed over the course of the artist’s career. Lima’s painting, while he was a student at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, deals with a personal interpretation of a work by Matisse, perhaps the work Dance. It shows dancing mythological male figures, inspired by Greek ceramics, but where the genitals are not represented, thus conferring to the piece an allusion to gender ambiguities.

We may also glimpse other works by Galrão, such as the drawing of a male figure in an erotic position, drinking a liquid in the kitchen, perhaps milk, accompanied by a stunning psychedelic background, in fluorescent yellow, which manifests a pictorial treatment reminiscent of a certain 60s pop expression.

Ana Pérez-Quiroga offers us, in turn, an installation, with the name Stereotype… Poof! Is gone. Along the wall we see photographed faces of women that were gathered by the artist, and that result from an appeal she made to the whole country: to find Portuguese lesbian women, without age limitations or any other restriction. Accompanying the photographs, on the floor, there is a screen that transmits a video where we can observe the selection of eight personal objects of each woman.

We can also, in a privileged way, see works by important artists such as Pedro Amaral, João Fonte Santa, António Olaio, Daniel Garbade, Fátima Vicente Silva, Pauliana Valente Pimentel, Peter Garrad, José Ferreira, Ivo Bassanti, and Colin Ginks.

The group exhibition, my father is a dirty slutty transcendental girlie, is on show at the Espaço Caramujo in Almada until 14 October.