“Queer: Breaking Cages” brings eco-sculptures on identity and sustainability to Lisbon

03 Nov - 09 Nov 2025

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From 3 to 9 November, KEF – Kees Eijrond Foundation hosts the exhibition “Queer: Breaking Cages” by the Italian artist Paolo Valerio. A clinical psychologist, eco-sustainable artist and queer activist, Valerio presents for the first time in Portugal sculptures and installations created from discarded materials collected on beaches in Italy, Cuba and Portugal over nearly 12 years.

In the creative process – described by the artist as a practice of attention – wood, metal, plastic, glass and fishing nets, reminiscent of “cages”, gain a new aesthetic and symbolic function and re-emerge as metaphors for transformation. The conversion of waste into visual organisms speaks of origin, desire, creation and an ethics of repurposing.

The curatorial focus highlights a sculptural gesture that attributes dignity to what is rejected or cancelled, articulating environmental defence with LGBTQIA+ rights in an artistic act that is also political.

Valerio draws closer to movements such as arte povera and assemblage, dialoguing with Alberto Burri in the expressive use of worn, burnt or corroded matter. The exhibition also highlights a camp influence, within Susan Sontag's pioneering framework: the ironic recombination of popular consumer objects (toys, nets, buoys), theatricality and a critique of hegemonic normativity, whether aesthetic or gender-based.

 

With a decade-long career including exhibitions in Europe and Latin America, Valerio consolidates in Portugal a practice that brings together theoretical knowledge, clinical experience and aesthetic sensitivity within the same field of action. His debut in the country is supported by the Gender, Identity and Culture Foundation - ETS.

With the purpose of opening space for new perspectives on the themes that guide his artistic practice, Paolo Valerio invites photographer Fabio Schiattarella to join the exhibition programme with the diptych "Reminiscence". Created within the context of Schiattarella's research on gender studies, the work proposes a reflection on intersectional discrimination and the ways in which sex, gender and other personal identities relate. The work is born from fortuitous encounters followed by observation and discussion between the photographer and the subjects, in a laboratory-like process where individual memories and experiences recognise, cross and influence each other.

At the opening of Queer: Breaking Cages, Paolo will talk with Carla Moleiro and André Tecedeiro about his work, the queer and ecological manifesto in art, and its role in building a new social imaginary. The talk will be moderated by Filipe Campello.

 

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Paolo Valerio is an Honorary Professor of Clinical Psychology (University of Naples Federico II), founder of the SInAPSi Centre, president of the Gender, Identity and Culture Foundation - ETS in Naples, and president of ONIG (an Italian association dedicated to trans people). He has exhibited his works at Castel dell’Ovo in Naples (2016); at the Salerno Contemporary Art Biennale, where he received the prize for Eco-sustainable Art (2018); at the International Art Biennale of Armenia – BIARCO in Colombia (2022), where he won first prize in the Eco-Sustainable Art category; at the Centre Culturel Italien in Paris (2023-24); and in Havana, within the framework of a congress against homophobia and transphobia.

Fabio Schiattarella is an artist and professional in the fields of social inclusion and visual communication. His research focuses on the hybridisation between photography and the humanities as a narrative tool to explore the complexity and uniqueness of the human experience. His long-term project, Out of the Cage – Beyond the Queerness, developed between Naples and Paris, focuses on the shared experiences of the participants in the expression workshops he leads. For the artist, gender remains an empty word without the proper subjectivisation of personal stories. The project has been presented in numerous cultural centres and widely recognised for its ability to provoke authentic reflections on gender issues.

Carla Moleiro is a professor at Iscte and current director of CIS-Iscte. Her research focuses on mental health and diversity, with a special emphasis on people of migrant origin and ethnic minorities, refugee populations, LGBTQI+ individuals and intersectional positions. Applied research has explored clinical competencies for individual and cultural diversity and interventions with vulnerable populations, such as unaccompanied minors and trans* and gender-diverse youth.

André Tecedeiro (1979) is a poet and playwright, author of eight books of poetry published in Portugal, Brazil, Colombia and Spain. The most recent, A Axila de Egon Schiele (Porto Editora, 2020), was recommended by the National Reading Plan. He has participated in festivals in Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Barcelona, Sète and Compostela, as well as various events in his own country. Author of seven plays, he debuts in 2025 O Lago dos Cisnes, Começar Tudo Outra Vez and Trote Torto. He holds a degree and a master's in Painting (FBAUL; UE) and in Psychology (FPUL). He acts as a consultant on gender diversity and inclusion.

Filipe Campello is a Professor of Philosophy at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, a CNPq researcher and a curator. With a PhD from the University of Frankfurt, he has been a visiting professor in New York, Bergen, Perugia and Duisburg. He is the author of Crítica dos afetos, Modernizações ambivalentes and several articles in specialised journals. He has been active as a curator since 2022. He is a member of the Art-PE curatorial committee. In 2025, he founded Verso Galeria in Lisbon, dedicated to promoting the circulation and dialogue between emerging artists from Brazil and Europe.

 

Information

Exhibition: Queer: Breaking Cages, by Paolo Valerio
Support: Gender, Identity and Culture Foundation - ETS
Exhibition co-organisation: Filipe Campello (Verso)
Rua de Santa Catarina, 9, ground floor - Lisbon
Opening: 3 November, with a talk (in English) at 7:30 pm, third floor
From 4 to 9 November, from 3 pm to 7:30 pm, ground floor
Free admission (subject to capacity)