“How many slaves is a mental hospital worth?” This question, engraved in a mirror and displayed in the panopticon of a psychiatric hospital in Porto, Portugal, prompted the administration to close a multimedia exhibition the day it opened.

Vento (A) mar is one of the 16 exhibitions organized within the framework of the third edition of the annual Biennale of Porto Photography. Dori Nigro and Paulo Pinto developed the site-specific installation with curator Georgia Quintas to “investigate the symbolic and poetic territory of spaces of ancestry and memory”, ranging from the artists’ home state of Pernambuco, in Brazil, at a hospital in Porto that bears the name of a profiteer from the slave trade.

The Centro Hospitalar Conde de Ferreira, where the work was installed, is one of more than 100 institutions that Joaquim Ferreira dos SantosConde de Ferreira, financed with money largely derived from the slave trade from Angola to Brazil on his fleet of slave ships.

“Vento (A)mar”, which translates to both “Wind at Sea” and “Wind to Love”, includes portrayals of Conde de Ferreira and critiques of the continued erasure of Portugal’s racist colonial history.

“We offer an artistic dialogue to heal the wounds”, said Dori Nigro Hyperallergic. “We don’t see the cancer and think, okay, the cancer will heal itself.”

The performers enjoyed the full cooperation of hospital staff and management in the days leading up to the opening and did not expect the hospital’s response on May 20.

“We were surprised on opening day, 30 minutes after opening the doors to the public,” says Quintas.

The hospital closed one room in the exhibit for several days but agreed to reopen with several pieces of art removed. They also canceled a performance by the artists which alluded to the hospital boss’ slavery past. After the Biennale issued a press release condemning the censorship, the hospital reinstated a small sugar bowl with Conde de Ferreira’s image on it.

“It was super symbolic that it was in a panopticon – a site of observation, manipulation, control,” said Virgílio Ferreira, co-artistic director of the 2023 Biennale. memory. We obviously touched on a trauma that is not resolved.

Since the censorship of the exhibition, the Biennale has received emails of support from the Municipality of Porto, the Direção-Geral das Artes, the University of Porto and other partners affirming the right of the Biennale to present the exhibition. Some visitors have also left red carnations, a symbol of the liberation of Portugal, on the Conde de Ferreira sugar bowl.

Although disappointed by the hospital’s censorship of their work, the artists are collaborating with the Biennale on a response that includes public debate and the development of future projects.

“We built this project with our grandmothers in mind,” Pinto said. Hyperallergic. “We keep this ancestry, and what came before, and what will come after.”

In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, the Centro Hospitalar Conde de Ferreira defended its decision, saying the hospital community “felt affected” by the language used in the exhibit. At the same time, the hospital affirmed its commitment to discussing his story “adequately”.

The hospital ended its statement with a quote from a famous Spanish philosopher: “As Ortega y Gasset would say, we are ‘ourselves and our circumstances’.” The hospital refused to provide Hyperallergic with additional commentary for this story.

The co-artistic director of the Porto Photography Biennale, Jayne Dyer, believes that art should lead to action.

“These things grow,” Dyer said. “We try to dig deep into the very fabric of what we as artists can change. If we don’t, nothing happens. »

Pinto has another view on why the mirror, engraved with the question: “How many slaves is a mental hospital worth?” caused such a disruption to the hospital.

“Why don’t we like looking at ourselves in the mirror? Because we feel ugly,” Pinto said. “The only reason why [Conde de Ferreira] became the benefactor because he was a slaver.