The exhibition Linha d’Água is included in the cultural program of MAR – Museu da Água e Resíduos, located in Sintra, which has mainly been concerned with environmental awareness and the intersection between art, technology and ecology. This exhibition presents a new set of works by the artist Miguel Palma – whose artistic practice is defined by its conceptual complexity and cross-disciplinarity to question the tensions between technological development and environmental sustainability, reflecting the museum’s commitment to raising environmental awareness through art.

The invitation to the artist came from SMAS Sintra, represented by Managing Director Dr. Carlos Vieira. I visited the exhibition with the Director of the Museum, Helena Cardoso, and Ricardo Pereira, responsible for coordinating the exhibition and set design. Before moving on to Linha d’Água, we should remember that Miguel Palma’s work and research is known for its use of modern objects and narratives, often combining elements such as cars, aviation and architecture to discuss the narratives of progress and their environmental and social impacts. Palma has been working with a broad range of media – drawing, sculpture, installation, video and performance, creating dialogues reflecting the artist’s fascination with technology, combining a critical approach that helps him explore the rapport between nature and machine, the memory of the industrial and the present ecological challenges. He has explored the intersection between seemingly distinct universes, articulating them by turning objects into symbolic artifacts, reshaping them and freeing them from a functional aesthetic, delving into art and technique.

This exhibition is not an exception and this identity is apparent in the body of work, revealing the conceptual domain. As we enter the room, Helena and Ricardo naturally begin by talking about the piece that stands at the center – Cascata.  Water, glass, metal, wood, ropes, tubes… this installation is approximately three meters long and two meters high and it clearly establishes a direct line with the museum’s central theme and that of the building itself. Its structure, referring to the industrial, to beams and pulleys, supports a series of objects, rocks, microscopes, magnifying lenses and sealed tanks, all placed side by side. It feels like we’re looking at a living, functioning thing which breathes and has its own energy, but which also emphasizes, in some way, the frailty of the balance between humans and the environment, humans and machines, the delicate state of things. We discussed, in a more specific way, an object-fragment inside one of the “aquariums”, an automotive component which is referred to by the artist as a brain – “(…) this is the name for it in the car industry. It hydraulically pressurizes the valves and oils to change gears in automatic transmission vehicles. Hence the name brain, as this is where the control for the gearbox comes from”^[1] – explains the artist in a Público interview. Like so many other objects that Palma makes use of, it is stripped of its utilitarian purpose to be given new meaning. It speaks to the work and forethought behind an exhibition, but it also seems to me possible that it could be redefined as a metaphor for the human capacity – or inability – to succeed in managing natural resources in a sustainable way, a critical consideration of the technological systems we have built and their ecological impact.

Biblioteca #1, #2 (2024), a diptych featuring bindings from the scientific magazine La Nature, from 1908 to 1938, also enhances the museum’s academic and didactic nature^[2], while questioning the relationship between science, art and society. Ricardo Pereira agrees that the magazine’s contents have been used in other works and that, in this case, the bindings operate as a link between knowledge, the museum and the public; the past and the present, perhaps representing the knowledge that is acquired, but also the need to question and reinterpret the knowledge that is continually passed on.

These paintings and drawings (Meteo-rite and the series Tripofobia e Passepartout literário, 2024) explore visual patterns of geological forms and natural textures, referring to the land and water connection. With a pronounced graphic character that repeats itself, the artist couples fluid movements, which take us back to the course and movement of water, with typographic elements. Ricardo clarifies that the letters in the pieces were collected by the artist from a 60s educational box. They offer a chance for a language of their own, perhaps the possibility of a new grammar, a writing from Nature.

Miguel Palma’s work in the exhibition continues his artistic routine of transforming pre-existing objects into pieces loaded with symbolic meaning. Profoundly rooted in a reflection on modernity, it demonstrates an ongoing commitment to formal and conceptual innovation, presenting works which are not static representations, but dynamic systems which invite reflection and further dialogue on these themes. The exhibition’s central theme, water, not only emerges as a physical element, but also – I propose – as a metaphor for memory, communication and life flows, which echo contemporary environmental crises.

With his ability to address complex issues through visually striking aesthetics, the artist, together with MAR, has come to create a dialog between the exhibition venue and the works with Linha d’água, raising awareness about the efficient use of resources, a key aspect of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The exhibition will run until March 31, 2025.

^[1] https://www.publico.pt/2025/01/08/culturaipsilon/noticia/circuitos-aquaticos-miguel-palma-2117820
^[2] Ricardo Pereira spoke to Umbigo about the exhibition.