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ABOUT

LigiaOliveira

Lígia Oliveira is an artist, designer and researcher, and her work is centred on the emotional relationship between humans and nature. Oliveira’s work is non-linear, as each discipline explores both a particular component and the whole: an interdisciplinary, multiscale approach that extends across the visual arts, essay, poetry, research and design. In a way, she makes no distinction between these practices: Oliveira’s research is sourced in her creative processes, and the opposite is also true. Oliveira’s articles and essays are sometimes first paintings, pictures, videos, sketches, objects, spatial interventions. In this ongoing loop, one becomes another, or different facets of the same idea evolve and relate, making the whole.

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Over the years, her work has become a contemplative practice contextualised within our current ecological context. Phenomenology and nature: how we relate to the natural world with our senses and what emotions they provoke. An embodied practice of listening: towards mending bonds through different scales, looking into different perspectives, in and with the diversity of nature. Learning from it, and its patterns, in an approach informed by behavioural sciences. Place, senses, emotions, values and observation are key issues across her work and relationship with nature and more than humans. Oliveira seeks to create with meaning, with a process of relating to nature, humans, other species and elements based on respect, gratitude, admiration and affectionate care. Good relationships are, after all, the core definition of a good life.

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Lígia grew up nearby the tranquility of the Ria Formosa wetlands in southern Portugal, which have seeded her relationship with nature, and particularly, with the sea. She studied at ESAD Matosinhos and at the University of Antwerp, and she received her PhD from the University of Barcelona. Since the beginning of her career, Lígia has maintained a balance between multiple practices and scales, thinking and doing, as she sees knowledge processes as embodied practices.

 

Lígia’s interdisciplinary work has been exhibited and published widely, with collaborations including the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Academy (TBA21-Academy) and the Mind & Life Institute, among others. Lígia was awarded the 3rd prize in Urban Furniture by the Antwerp City Council and Havenhuis (co-author) and the 2nd prize in Illustration by the Matosinhos City Council. She was a researcher at the University of Barcelona, professor at the University of Porto, and has served with her knowledge at the European Commission. Furthermore, Lígia is a member of the Design+Posthumanism Network and of Rise Up for the Ocean. 

 

Lígia Oliveira’s accolades include those from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Foundation for Science and Technology, and Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Creativity and research are slow, demanding tasks and these institutions, along with many other professionals and colleagues, have contributed to making Lígia’s efforts possible - something she is profoundly grateful for.

Lígia Oliveira currently lives in Southern Portugal.

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You can learn more about Lígia's commitment to the environment here.

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