The Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennial (BF24), inaugurated on November 30, 2024, has established itself once more as a pivotal event in the Portuguese contemporary photography landscape. Since its inception in 1989, the Biennial has been a convergence ground for artists and the audience, encouraging an attentive and critical look at what has been Portugal’s most recent artistic photographic endeavour. This edition upholds that commitment, reinforcing itself as a platform that emphasises diverse artistic careers. With a transdisciplinary perspective, BF24 provides aesthetic insights beyond the photographic technique, offering visual languages with innovative perspectives, reflection and experimentation.

For this edition, nearly 130 artists entered the competition for the three prizes: the Biennial Photography Prize, the Vila Franca de Xira Municipality Prize and the Tauromaquia Prize. Among these, Alexandre de Magalhães, Bruno Parente, Catarina Cesário Jesus, Daniel Malhão, Filipe Bianchi, Jorge Vale, Marcos Duvágo, Pedro Rocha, Ricardo Moita, Rodrigo Vargas, Gonçalo C. Silva and Rui Pereira were selected for the exhibition at Celeiro Patriarcal. This group, through various aesthetic and investigative endeavours, raises questions about identity, memory and transformation. The works presented at BF24 also enter into a direct and meaningful conversation with the cultural and historical specificities of the place, reflecting at the same time global concerns. This interplay between the local and the global permits the narratives to expand, providing a platform where meanings can come together.

Alexandre de Magalhães was awarded the Biennial Photography Prize for his series CÓCLEA, a work distinguished by its technical depth and conceptual maturity, overturning the notion of photography as an objective record. Magalhães explores narrative deconstruction, capturing poetic, dreamlike images of shifting and transient landscapes, presenting photography as a sort of portal, a mirror that distorts and magnifies human perceptions. The artist describes his work as a reference to the “murmur of the unperceived forces of the Earth’s geological systems operating above and below the surface”^[1]. During his walks through woods, rivers and mountains, Magalhães explores ‘subliminal frequencies normally lost in the cacophony of human activity’, defying the notion of linear time and presenting interpretive layers that expand the audience’s perceptive abilities. In deconstructing the visible, CÓCLEA provides a glimpse of photography as a meeting point between the real and the imagined.

The Vila Franca de Xira Council Prize was given to Ricardo Moita for his series CIMIANTO, which revisits the derelict premises of an old asbestos company. Moita takes the material degradation of this location as a metaphor to explore the march of time and the memory of objects. Drawing on environmental and social issues, the project invites us to consider how the narratives of a place morph over time. As the artist puts it, ‘some things remain the same but tell us different stories, I’m keen to explore this juggling of meanings and encounter objects whose identity I do not know’. This approach brings out photography’s ability to grasp the multiple layers of meaning arising from the interactions between space, time and memory.

The Tauromaquia Prize – a motif that, although profoundly rooted in the city’s cultural identity, strikes me, given today’s ethical sensitivities and values, as worthy of reflection as to whether it should remain relevant in the present day – was awarded in this edition to Pedro Rocha, for his BRAVA series, which excels at documenting informal moments that precede or follow a bull run. The work reveals a behind-the-scenes view of bullfighting, distancing itself from the ‘formal pose’ that typically defines this universe.

Besides the main prizes, Filipe Bianchi was awarded an honourable mention for his work exploring the identity of the Jamestown neighbourhood in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The series captures the resilience and hope of a poverty-stricken community: ‘At the heart of this community a relentless rhythm is throbbing: the boxing rhythm (…)’. The work presented crosses geographical and cultural barriers, establishing a dialogue with universal concerns of resistance and transformation.

This year’s edition featured a Board of Curators made up of Cláudio Garrudo, Pauliana Valente Pimentel and Sofia Nunes, all of whom shortlisted the projects for the different awards. The Awards Jury included Ana Anacleto, Bruno Sequeiro, David Santos, Isabel Nogueira and José Maçãs de Carvalho.

Apart from this exhibition, which is testament to the painstaking way in which the individual narratives of each author were prioritised, two other distinct curatorial moments must also be mentioned. Curated by Ana Rito, the programme Serpente Infinita includes the presentation of individual projects by 18 artists. At first, the exhibitions opened at Fábrica das Palavras (with Adriana Molder, Anna Maria Maiolino, Bárbara Fonte, Brígida Mendes, Bruce Nauman, Daniela Ângelo, Denilson Baniwa, Elisa Azevedo, Igor Jesus, Inês Moura, Irit Batsry, Paulo Arraiano, Sandra Rocha, Sr. Teste, Tris Vonna-Michell), at Galeria Paulo Nunes (Carla Cabanas), at Núcleo Museológico do Mártir Santo (Damir Očko), and interventions were made on the façade of the Municipal Museum, and in the Hall and Façade of the Neo-Realism Museum (Paulo Arraiano). On February 15, the group exhibition will open with the participation of Adriana Molder, Bárbara Fonte, Brígida Mendes, Daniela Ângelo, Elisa Azevedo, Igor Jesus, Inês Moura, Institut Lumière, Irit Batsry and Tris Vonna-Michell.

The exhibition at Celeiro Patriarcal, with the works of the selected and awarded artists, can be visited until January 19, 2025.

^[1] This and all the other quotes in the article are taken from the official catalogue of the exhibition.