In its most immediate sense, the voice is the sound made by our vocal cords, how we speak and make ourselves heard. Above and beyond sound, the voice is an instrument of subjective expression that changes over time. Be it in spoken words, in singing or in silence, the voice is a strong testimony of who we have been, who we are and who we may become.

Lou Vives’ first solo exhibition Ritmos y Poemas is part of a field where memory and identity are borne by the voice. Regardless of whether it is materialised in sound, in written words or in graphic inscriptions, vocal expression is a means of bargaining between the interior and exterior, the self and the world.

The show is triggered by the rhythm of percussion and words. In Ritmos y Poemas (2024), the inaugural performance, gesture and voice are both repeated and improvised. This performance leads to an installation in which all the objects that were part of it are kept: drums, carpets and soundproofing materials. Vives’ absent body is not only eternalised in Kunsthalle Lissabon’s premises through the gesture and elements they left behind, but also through the poetry echoing around the gallery thanks to the sound piece I was at a moment when everything was new (2025).

This impermanent trail is captured in a mural on the gallery’s largest wall. In Three sad triggers/Optimism Of The Will (2025), the absence of a prior outline reflects the very nature of memory: fluid and unpredictable. Madrid’s twin chapels of San Antonio de la Florida – which contain Goya frescoes – provide the anchor for the composition in which we see objects from different contexts. In a football, a console, tools or a tube of paint, we find a range of echoes that combine the personal and the collective. Choosing a tongue twister as the work’s title implies a direct relationship with sound as plastic matter. The repetition of the ‘tr’ sound when reading creates a rhythmic effect that is akin to the rhythm of percussion, a central element in the exhibition. The concept of an emotional trigger is also raised with the word ‘trigger’ itself, which is often associated with trauma.

The series Drummer #1-10 (2024), a collection of ten lithographs, is an evocation and reinterpretation of the 1970s iconic gay magazine. Drummer was an important outlet for affirming and celebrating gay leather culture. Vives remembers this period of resistance and freedom, but also of exclusion and marginalisation, reinterpreting it with various symbols. One of these lithographs shows the Prospect Cottage of the artist, filmmaker and activist Derek Jarman, whose work is profoundly marked by his queer identity. The others feature gaming chairs, construction tools, Hot Wheels or screenshots from the artist’s personal archive. By juxtaposing these elements, Vives creates a dialogue between the past and the present, between the underground culture of the 1970s and contemporary digital culture. Using collage and repetition, the series explores the idea of archive, collective memory and how desire and identity are constructed through cultural references.

The archaeological nature of their work is also revealed in A minha voz antiga (2017), a cassette with the words that give it its title written on the back. As an analogue object, the cassette stores an accidental recording of the artist’s voice as a teenager. By moving this personal document into the exhibition area, Vives activates questions about time and transformation. The cassette is a trace of a self that no longer exists in the same way, but remains in motion.

In deconstructing the boundaries between archive and performance, rehearsal and improvisation, Lou Vives offers a vision of time and identity based on movement – an unstable and unfinished territory where desire, music and language become transformative forces. Ritmos y Poemas is an experience that is resistant to immutability and sees ephemerality as a political gesture: a vindication of fluidity as a form of existence.

The exhibition is at Kunsthalle Lissabon until April 5, 2025.