MUTE is a Contemporary Art Platform located in the heart of Lisbon. Our mission is to promote access to culture in general and Fine Art in particular. Throughout the first three years of activity we presented more than 50 artists in monthly exhibitions, produced multiple contemporary music performances, themed seminars, book launches and contemporary art performances. Our goal is to promote connections between national and international artists and that is why we developed a residency program which included artists from countries such as: Chile, Brazil, U.S.A., Poland, France, Scotland, U.K., Canada, Israel and Germany. In 2017 we started our pedagogical project with a Philosophy and Art course. These theory based courses are ongoing and will expand their scope in the near future.
Gallery Manager:
Manuel Furtado dos Santos
Lives and works in Lisbon.
He started the MUTE project, having defined the programming, designed the physical space itself and created the objectives of this contemporary art platform. Master’s Degree in Installation from the Central Saint Martins School of Arts (2007) and Bachelor’s Degree in Sculpture from Coventry University (2005).
He has been researching, teaching and exhibiting in Portugal and England since 2003 in the fields of sculpture, installation, photography and painting. He has works in private collections in Portugal, England, Australia, Germany and 3 public collections in England. He has worked with the Edge-Arts Gallery and the Soprano Gallery between 2008 and 2014. He teaches practical and theoretical courses in visual arts at the Escuela Arte Limitada. Co-curator of collective exhibitions such as White Garden at P28 in 2009 and executed several large orders from 2005 to 2013. He designed and built his own studio with exhibition space and personal collection in 2012. He studied medicine for 2 years at the Faculty of Medicina de Lisboa and attended the 3rd year in the Biological Engineering course Instituto Superior Técnico.
Founder and Patron:
Zica Viana
Lives and works in Oeiras (n.1954, Lisbon). She is an activist in the associative movement linked to citizenship, interior designer, mother of the family, collector of contemporary art and patron of the arts. She graduated in interior design in 1973 from the IADE.
She worked at the Portuguese Blanchard for a year. She has developed multiple projects as a freelancer in the field of interior design and unique pieces of furniture. Collaborated with a television producer in the series decors from 1989 to 1990. President of parents’ associations and Civitas de Oeiras from 1987 to 2017. Sha was a founding partner of Arte Contempo and the MUTE project of which she is the only patron to date.
Gallery Assistant:
Lois Búa
From Muxía (A Coruña). He lives and works in Lisbon.
Graduated in Fine Arts at the University of Vigo, Spain, 2018. He is born in a photographer’s family, where he began to develope his interest in art, especially in design. Once he started his studies he changes his classical interests, and develops a taste for multimedia and performance. He is curious about curation, and implementing communitary artistic activities, which made him look for experience in galleries and the cultural industries. Throughout his artistic career he was selected for the DKV Fresh Art (2012), made a short film for the Festival Novos Cinemas (2017) and was one of the four winners of the Novos Valores contest (2018), with a scholarship to continue developing the Abecedário Project (2017), a series of videos where the marketing language is reconsidered. This project was produced collectively and aims to promote interaction with the public. Moreover, he has a duo performance (Sangra&Loro) with the artist Sandra Varela (Ourense, 1996), with whom he performed in Galicia (Fugas e Interferencias II, 2017) as well as in Prague (Performance Crossing Fest, 2018).
Gallery Assistant:
Sandra Varela
From Ourense. She lives and works in Lisbon.
Graduated in Fine Arts at the University of Vigo, Spain, 2018. Throughout her studies, in addition to define her artistic production, she collaborates with different student organizations, which allows her to see the social work not only as enriching but as necessary. She organizes events, expositions, and even a congress (Novos Feminismos, Pontevedra, 2016). Her artwork is multidisciplinary, with a highlighted taste towards embroidery, installation, design and performance, and her conceptual line of work moves between intimacy and social criticism. In the field of performance she collaborated with different artists, and in 2017 she creates the duo Sangra&Loro along with the artist Lois Búa (1996, Muxía), with whom performed in Galicia (Congreso de Arte de Acción Fugas e Interferencias II, 2017) and in Prague (Performance Crossings Fest, 2018). Individually, she has participated in several exhibitions, such as Outono Fotográfico (Ourense, 2016), Certame de Artes Plásticas (Ourense, 2017), where she won the 1st prize, and the Novos Valores contest (2018, Pontevedra. She also has experience as a painting teacher and as a costume designer.