In the beginning there is Cicinnurus respublica, also known as Wilson's Bird of Paradise. Because everything we create began in nature, either because we actively seek it out and observe it, or simply because our ancestral coexistence makes it impossible to escape its formative influence. The figure of the bird is broken down into its basic elements, which are transformed, then reassembled to form new figures. From a small group of elements, it is possible to create a Universe. Similarly, the chemical elements present on Earth are not infinite, but the multiple combinations they form with each other result in an enormous variety, a variety that is exponential if we consider that these connections add up and become more complex.

Many of the paths and processes that connect objects and organisms are not accessible to us, either because their temporal nature or dimensions are very different from ours, or because our biology and culture limit our understanding. We live in a world of seemingly independent objects and organisms, where some remind us of others, and we speculate about these reflections. Sometimes closer, sometimes further away from understanding that we exist as part of a larger system and are vulnerable to the destruction of any part of it.

Joana da Conceição (Porto, 1981) lives and works in Lisbon. Her thinking and practice are rooted in painting and music, and public presentations of her work oscillate between the two.

Her prolific and multifaceted artistic practice has led her to seek new formats and platforms to showcase her work. She creates contemplative and multisensory environments, spaces for us to tune in to ourselves and our surroundings, whether it be a cinema or a skate park on top of a fajã in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Her installations are places of reconciliation, growing out of the artist's urgent need to confront and live with the contradictions that, in the context of Western ontology, animate the post-humanist turn.

She completed her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts – Painting in 2004 and her Master's Degree in Contemporary Artistic Practices in 2008, both at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto.

Active in the field of contemporary electronic composition, Joana has been performing solo and in collaboration since 2005, when she and André Abel formed Tropa Macaca, a contemporary electronic composition duo. In 2018, she co-founded the female multimedia collective Toda Matéria.

She was honoured with the 5th Edition of the Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum/EGEAC and RU – Residency Unlimited, NY (2020) Partnership and winner of the Anteciparte Millennium BCP Award (2005). Inov-art scholarship holder in Rio de Janeiro, at Capacete Residências Artísticas (2010-2011). She participated in the Desconcentrar Residency - Culturgest/Caixa Geral de Depósitos Collection, Caramulo, 2025; in the Farra Residencies, Elvas, 2022, 2024; in the GIBCA Biennial Residency, Gothenburg, 2023; Residency Unlimited, New York, 2020; the Lagamas Artistic Residency promoted by the Cournelius Foundation, Montpellier, 2013; and the ZDB Residency, Lisbon, 2011.