24Nov2025
24Nov2025
For almost a month and a half, from September 22 to November 10, the Rectorate of NOVA University Lisbon presents the project “A Thick Cloud of Love. Some queer theses, antitheses, and syntheses at NOVA University Lisbon,” which seeks to present some hypotheses for reflection, creation, projection, and queer performativity in the artistic/academic sphere.
With Ana Pérez-Quiroga, André e. Teodósio (Teatro Praga), Carlos Motta, Cláudia Varejão, Francisco Mallmann, Hilda de Paulo, Horácio Frutuoso, Jenny Larrue, João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Lolo Arziki, Lou Vives, Luisa Cunha, Odete, Paulo Pascoal, Rogério Nuno Costa, Thomas Hirschornn, Vasco Araújo.
Lecture: Coisas Que Imaginámos / Things We Imagined by Jesualdo Lopes (The Blacker The Berry Project)
Conference: “Artivism, Queer Thought, and Academia: Interactions”: António Fernando Cascais (org./moderator), Ana Cristina Santos (CES – Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra), and João Manuel de Oliveira (ISCTE)
Queer Lisbon Session: A Cama, by Sinde Filipe (1975); Os Demónios da Liberdade e Fatucha Superstar – Ópera Rock… Bufa, by João Paulo Ferreira (1976)
A quick search on https://run.unl.pt/, a repository of master’s and doctoral theses, books, conferences, and scientific articles from NOVA University Lisbon, using the keywords “Homosexuality,” “LGBT,” “Queer,” “GAY,” “Transsexual,” and “Lesbian,” yields several results. The increase in academic production on LGBTQIA+ issues and problems affecting its various communities has been very significant since the beginning of the 21st century, logically accompanying the major social, scientific, cultural, and legislative changes that have occurred since then and which led NOVA to create, in 2023, the Office of Equality and Inclusion, a partner in this project. This knowledge production is distributed across the various faculties and respective research institutes of NOVA University Lisbon and necessarily involves various points of view, critical frameworks, knowledge needs, and scientific models. Throughout its several decades of existence, since 1973, NOVA University Lisbon, in parallel with other similar university bodies, has been densifying a very specific cloud of knowledge, challenging/overthrowing perceptions, dogmas, and prejudices, opening up new perspectives, issues, and knowledge. The same is true in the context of art, contemporary artistic creation and production, in its various fronts or disciplinary fields: visual arts, cinema, video, performance, literature…
It is from the desire to confront/cross the academic and artistic worlds that Pedro Faro’s curatorial project was born – “A Thick Cloud of Love – Some queer theses, antitheses, and syntheses at Universidade Nova de Lisboa,” whose title is based on a paragraph from Burroughs’ book “Queer”:
“I had a duty to live and to bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. ”WHENEVER YOU ARE THREATENED BY A HOSTILE PRESENCE, YOU EMIT A THICK CLOUD OF LOVE LIKE AN OCTOPUS SQUIRTS OUT.”
What has NOVA University done about these issues? What kind of knowledge/approaches have been developed? What aspects have been valued? “A Dense Cloud of Love” seeks to question the role of academia and art in the production of knowledge, to problematize the relationships between power and knowledge, and to present moments of academic, artistic, poetic, and celebratory restlessness and reflection.
“A Thick Cloud of Love” shows a tight selection of works by different artists in different formats—visual arts, installation, performance, film—seeking to value, over almost a month and a half, every week, the situation of the encounter between the public, art, and academia. These various works/situations question, relate, and instigate the production of knowledge (and its usual procedures).
In Passos Perdidos, the space leading to the auditorium of the Rectory, works by Ana Pérez-Quiroga, Francisco Mallmann, Hilda de Paulo, João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Luisa Cunha, Thomas Hirschornn, among various documentation in different media – where the artistic intervention/installation by Horácio Frutuoso (also author of the graphic image for this project) on the multiplicity of academic production stands out, highlighting some of his achievements.
Every week, the auditorium will host performances by André e. Teodósio (Teatro Praga), Jenny Larrue, Lou Vives, Paulo Pascoal, Rogério Nuno Costa, and films/videos by Carlos Motta, Cláudia Varejão, Lolo Arziki, Odete, and Vasco Araújo.
Jesualdo Lopes will give a presentation/lecture entitled “Coisas Que Imaginámos / Things We Imagined” on The Blacker The Berry Project.
António Fernando Cascais will organize/moderate a conference entitled “Artivism, queer thinking, and academia: interactions,” with Ana Cristina Santos (CES – Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra) and João Manuel de Oliveira (Iscte-University Institute of Lisbon).
“A Thick Cloud of Love” also features the contribution of the Queer Lisboa film festival, which, on one of the days, will present a selection of historical films that will further explore the various proposals and issues raised.
The collaboration with the NOVA Library Network proved to be fundamental for the deepening and enhancement of this project, by providing bibliographic and documentary resources. At the same time, an initiative from the Film and Death project was included in the program, which allowed academic reflection to be crossed with the universe of cinema and visual arts.
This Thick Cloud of Love is intended to be a small working hypothesis, an experiment, a meeting, a discussion, certainly incomplete, but one that will seek to provoke further dialogue between art and academia in the context of LGBTQIA+ issues.
Non-conformity is fundamental to artistic discourse and to effective social change. The work of artists and many academics, full of density and complexity, is fundamental for us to seriously address the immense challenges of survival and coexistence posed by the present day in a more sustained, grounded, creative, and inspiring way, hoping that this cloud in the shape of love, the most beautiful of all clouds, will continue to grow.
In relation to this project, NOVA Cultura, in close collaboration with the Office for Equality and Inclusion, is preparing to publish on its website a list of scientific material produced at the institution on LGBTQIA+ issues. The aim of this initiative is also to give visibility to NOVA’s academic output, promote access to relevant resources, and contribute to debate and critical reflection on issues of diversity, identity, and inclusion.
Program:
Programa_AThickCloud
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