OM2016 – Maxamba

Sofia Borges is a researcher and visual artist. She works in relation to local communities, politics and in the media of installation and film. She studied Painting and Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon and Ar.Co. She received her M.F.A. in Curatorial Studies from the University of Lisbon, where she focused on the collaborative process in the visual arts and film.

Beginning in 2006, she worked in the Quinta da Vitória neighborhood of Lisbon (until its final demolition in 2014), where she coordinated and performed research, documentation and artistic projects, involving the local residents and other disciplines, including Anthropology, Cinema, Architecture and Botany. “A Festa Acabou”/ “The Party is Over” project worked on the imagination and narrative created by the inhabitants and the public space. She showed this project in Quinta da Vitória’s neighborhood with the support of its inhabitants, as well as in the “Underconstrution” exhibition commissioned by Mónica Miranda and Paul Goodwin. During the neighborhood’s demolition, she started the “Colecção Jardins da Vitória”/ “Vitory Gardens Collection,” a collaborative, public art
installation located near this neighborhood. This installation was created with trees and plants donated by the residents of the Quinta da Vitória.

Her work has been supported by the ÁFRICA.Cont (2015), Duquesne University (- 2015), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2013), Municipality of Loures (2012-13), DGA- Ministry of Culture (2008), Municipality of Oliveira do Hospital (2008) and the Orient Foundation (2001).