The couple and artist duo João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira took up residence at Casa de Serralves, turning it temporarily into Casa Vale Ferreira.

The artists’ first anthology exhibition, curated by Inês Grosso, displays a selection of the couple’s artistic output, celebrating more than two decades of joint work, but also their personal and emotional relationship. Not by chance, they got married on the day of the opening at Capela da Casa. The moment was captured on a commemorative plaque at the entrance to the tiny church, in an artistic and joyous gesture of their union, combining art, life and love. It was also a symbolic and political act – a gay wedding in a museum -, a reminder that only in 2010 did the Portuguese Parliament approve same-sex civil marriage in Portugal.

Casa Vale Ferreira gathers the duo’s early creations, recent projects and new pieces purposely built for what is considered to be a unique example of Art Deco architecture in Portugal. The artists have taken over the entire Casa Rosa with their artistic work, stunning us with the splendour of their installations, with DIY reverberations, collage and assemblage, combining different scenic, performative and theatrical references in a punk, non-conformist and protest attitude, particularly in defence of the rights, freedoms and guarantees of the LGBTQIA+ community. Interestingly, the pink of Casa stands out here, a strong colour for the community, given that it was initially used by the Nazis to punish and brutalise, but is now a symbol of pride and protest against homophobia.

The concept of Home can refer to multiple meanings and themes. What do we consider home? Is it comfort, safety, family? Or the opposite? Something material, an idea or a memory? How much can we include in a house? In Victor Fleming and King Vidor’s film The Wizard of Oz (1939), little Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, concludes at the end: ‘There’s no place like home’. At Casa Vale Ferreira, we managed to probe many of these issues, but especially to contemplate home as an idea and memory, the imagination of the artist duo, where multiple settings of dreams and utopias fit, not just for individuals, but for people who have been socially, racially and sexually discriminated against, marginalised and ostracised. In some of the rooms, we find pieces that are direct references to The Wizard of Oz (1939), such as Dorothy (2001) or There’s No Place Like Home (2008).

The Tearoom installation in Casa’s Salão Nobre, turned into its main entrance, consists of a large charriot with nearly a hundred jackets, decorated by the artists over the last few months in a punk style, with patches, lace and other lavish accessories, each in tribute to LGBTQIA+ poets, artists and personalities. James Baldwin, Gisberta, Natália Correia, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Al Berto, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Susan Sontag, Divine, Claude Cahun or Yukio Mishima, to name just a few. Visitors can dress up in the garments, see themselves in Salão’s large mirror and, for a few moments, adopt the same causes as the personalities, as would-be activists for freedom, equality and love. The curatorial text says: ‘Directly referencing the relationship between homosexuality, hiding and resistance, the installation The Tearoom by João Pedro Vale and Nuno Alexandre Ferreira epitomises the core of the artists’ work in its different dimensions: performative, investigative, written and visual. I would venture to add that it is almost a retrospective of their work (like the concept of a home within a home) and, arguably, the best way to start the journey through their work.” Accordingly, The Tearoom is unique in being at the intersection of performance, activism and textual and visual assemblage, in an expanded set-up in the exhibition venue. We can look at the artistic practice of Judy Chicago, or Martha Rosler, artists who have used the crossover between installation, performance and activism – influences when creating this piece. It should be emphasised that the term Tearoom is significant in gay terminology for clandestine encounters.

In the old game room of Casa, the artists have assembled a gymnasium, with chewing gum props – reminding us of the physical and the visceral – and upstairs they have installed Vadios (2018), reenacting a public urinal – both meeting places and cruising grounds for the LGBTQIA+ community and in line with the gay encounters theme, in the relationship between homosexuality, clandestinity and resistance. A reflection on the limits between the public and the private, the visible and the invisible, emphasising the relevance and significance of these places for the community. For example, in Vadios (2018), we wander around the green metal urinal, smelling the poppers, with some glory holes, drawings and extracts from poems with direct references to homosexual practices, by the so-called poets of Sodom, such as Judith Teixeira, Raul Leal or António Botto, but also by Bocage or Mário Cesariny. The title of the piece refers to the term contained in the 1912 decree that criminalised male homosexuality, which was only abolished in 1982. This installation embodies the history of persecution, criminalisation and repression of gay people, whilst at the same time celebrating their drive, strength and artistic creation, something that stands out throughout the exhibition. Throughout the exhibition, there are interesting iron pink triangles installed in the corners. The Fonte series (2015) harks back to the symbol of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an international political action group battling to end the AIDS pandemic, against stigma and silence, particularly the violence and prejudice endured by the LGBTQIA+ community.

Moving down to the basement and then to the Casa’s kitchen, the same issues beset us, as in As Milagrosas Águas de São Bento (2021-2024). A set of bottles with a supposedly miraculous liquid, together with a leaflet on its power, based on an original from the nineteenth century. The installation Pastelaria (2022) lures visitors with its green neon lights and shelves crammed with cakes that have been inoculated with seventeen species of fungus. And 1983 (2022), a 1980s-style photograph of the ageing artists. All three pieces are pandemic references, the first to COVID-19, the second to AIDS. To transience, illness and ageing. It was in 1983 that the first news of AIDS appeared in Portugal.

The exhibition’s apex, suggesting a relationship between homoeroticism and Portuguese culture, can be found in Heróis do Mar (2004). A large sand sculpture of a fallen lighthouse. The phallic element takes up a large part of the Casa’s central room and can also be seen from the first floor. It has a prominent presence, despite the enduring material, drawing attention to the Portuguese connection with the sea and all the art and poetics built around it. We can also build relationships through the installation Hero, Captain and Stranger (2009), influenced by the study of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851), starting from a homoerotic viewpoint, corroborated by several queer researchers and theorists. It should be remembered that there is a homosexual marriage in the book between the narrator Ishmael and Queequeg, a man from the Pacific islands. The installation piece is a set from the homonymous film, depicting the sailors’ sleeping quarters on a whaling ship, with reimagined props, such as painted whalebones, phallic pottery from Caldas da Rainha, or mugs with the Portuguese character Zé Povinho on them, reinterpreting the country’s culture from a homoerotic perspective.

Finally, Fim de Festa (2020-2024), a sound installation with an essential scent, permeates the Casa’s bathrooms. An aroma specially produced for the purpose, trying to capture the odour of the end of a party. The scent of a late night of dancing, a mixture of perfume, sweat, alcohol and fortuitous toilet encounters. Sounds of muffled music, but also of a poem read by one of the artists. The sensation of a party coming to an end may involve sadness, disappointment or tiredness. A longing to return home, after having been in a sort of limbo, or on a threshold between sweetness, pleasure and wonder.

The exhibition title combines the artists’ surnames in a blend of their artistic and personal identities, leading to their marriage in communion of acquired property, paradigmatically effecting the sharing of authorship of their works, reminiscent of the landmark discussion on the status of authorship. It shows how art can be a means of activism; a loudspeaker in the fight against inequality, including social, racial and sexual differences. At the crossroads of art, life, love and utopia.

Casa Vale Ferreira is on show until November 17, 2024 at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. A series of performances and parallel programmes are scheduled to take place in the second half of the year.