Acquisition Award by EDP Foundation/MAAT
Selected by João Pinharanda - Director of MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology)
The Breaking Point, Vera Mantero, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, 2024
The work presents, in a rhythm that becomes increasingly fast-paced and obsessive, the relationship between two characters trapped in a confined and bare space, reminiscent of a clinical or behavioral testing room, placing the audience in the role of observers of their behaviors.
Wearing masks that erase their identities and caricature the image of the human being, the characters in the video perform a series of repeated gestures, actions, and interactions that, through the progressively excessive nature of the performance, lead them (and us along with them) to a state of disorder and chaos. This “final state” does not negate, but rather gives meaning to the questioning of the degree of (self-)destruction of the values and behaviors of the (almost-)humanity that both seem to represent.
João Pinharanda
Honorable mention
Selected by João Pinharanda - Director of MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology)
My Ray of Sunshine, Laís Andrade, 2024
The video presents, with great sensitivity (in terms of narrative structure and visual and sound editing), a theme of strong historical and psychological weight. The development of the work highlights the complex and rich emotional and physical relationship between mother and daughter, which is staged in a way that draws the audience into the extreme violence—both collective and individual—from the slave trade.
João Pinharanda
Incentive Award DUPLACENA
Audience’s choice
My Ray of Sunshine, Laís Andrade, 2024
In 2025, FUSO received 208 applications from Portuguese artists or artists residing in Portugal through an open call, of which 13 works were selected by the festival’s artistic director, Jean-François Chougnet.
Among the selected works were pieces by Alexandre Lyra Leite, Carla Cruz, Eva Pelúcia, Inês Carneiro, and Sara Neves (Coletivo Nicho), Inês Ventura, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, and Vera Mantero, Laís Andrade, LealVeileby (António Leal and Jesper Veileby), Nuno Veiga, Sama (Eduardo Felipe Dutra), Sara Massa, Stephanie Monica, and Welket Bungué.
