Sofia Beça: Where the Body Listens to Matter — Records of a Working Body is on view at Espaço Mira, Porto
April 11 – June 6, 2026
The works presented in this exhibition result from three artist residencies carried out in China, between 2024 and 2025, in Shangyu, Jingdezhen and Yixing. They were developed in distinct contexts, with specific materials and working conditions that directly influenced the way each piece was constructed.
Porcelain, worked in Shangyu and Jingdezhen, allowed for the exploration of limits of thickness, continuity and resistance. Stoneware, in Yixing, imposed greater density and restraint, leading to more compact forms and a more direct approach to the material.
The exhibition does not separate these moments. It brings them into relation. The works are organised in series and variations, where small differences accumulate. There are no unique pieces in an isolated sense — each exists within a set.
The presence of writing and print runs through several works. It appears fragmented, incomplete, sometimes almost illegible. It is not text for continuous reading, but material integrated into the very construction of the pieces. In Yixing, some of these presences approach literary references, such as the texts of Su Dongpo, not as citation, but as a point of contact between language and matter.
The exhibition also includes videos and photographs produced during the residencies. They show the places, the working processes and the concrete conditions in which the works were made. They do not function as external documentation, but as part of the work itself.
Sound is present on two levels. An installation composed of around 2,400 small ceramic elements, suspended in four lines of five metres, enters into vibration and produces a resonance close to that of bells. In parallel, the exhibition includes a sound piece by Jorge Queijo, a musician invited by the artist, which moves through the space and interferes with the perception of the whole.
This work was developed in a cultural context that is not that of the artist. This displacement is not a theme, but a condition: it affects time, available materials, ways of working and the relationship with what is produced. The exhibition thus presents a body of work constructed from these conditions, without separating process and result.
Contact
miragalerias@miragalerias.net
Espaço Mira
MIRA Galerias
Rua Miraflor, no 155 / 159,
4300 – 334, Porto
Portugal
Photos by Antonio Chaves
