Rita Palma is a Portuguese multidisciplinary artist working on the concepts of identity and displacement. Her process can be described as a speculative research that doesn’t intend to get specific answers but merely questions. Questions like: What does it mean to be a human being? How does it interact with its own body?

Palma creates a polarity between the individual from a social perspective and the biological aspect. The bouncing between these spheres is paradoxical, contradicting and inconsistent. Palma’s projects are mostly expressed through figurative paintings and complemented through installation and photography.A multidisciplinary speech is essential to express the overlapping and contradicting values that coexist in human nature.

During her time at GlogauAIR, Palma developed a work called ANIMALS. Her main focus was the representation of an utopia: a species that is free from their social norms. The cultural context of these creatures is erased but they chase impulses and urges. She intends to highlight the feeling of displacement and the crises of identity that the contemporary society is going through. Afterward, Rita takes these paintings out of the studio and displaces them in nature. Now the paintings of the displaced individuals are displaced themselves. These pieces are presented at the Open Studios in their “new habitat”.

Mutter