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The self as multiple: An experimental exercise in identity's vastness
The self as multiple is constructed through gesture, movement, and time. This is the idea behind the third temporary exhibition of the MACAM collection, curated by Carolina Quintela, which, through the intersection of works by Portuguese and foreign artists, explores how notions of the body, identity, and perception relate to the dimension of the self.
I am not for everyone is the phrase that opens the exhibition. By demonstrating the unique identity of each individual, this statement summons a wholeness and, at the same time, reveals a shared “intimacy”: a thought, an emotion, and an individual perception that is projected onto an interpersonal level with which it is possible to relate and which allows for mirroring in the other. And, taking its spiral form, it triggers a series of movements that start from the individual to the multiple and from the multiple to the individual. The phrase itself reveals movement, initiating the construction of the multiplicity of the self in a constant dialectical game between the private that becomes public, between what is thought and what is said, between the static that becomes mobile.
The first part of the exhibition is like entering a house that is not our own, but in which we recognize ourselves. A mirror that reflects us but also reflects someone else staring back at us. A table that, instead of chairs, features mirrors as reflections of an implied absence—an object that we surround, but which, in a dual relationship, captures us back as its integral part. Although static, it creates, presents, and emits movement. An imminent sound invades the space, inviting us to approach, focusing on two natural elements that refer to the origin of the planet and all life, prompting us to think about how our own creation also comes from movement.
In this case, the self’s multiplicity is expressed both in the reflections of the mirrors, allowing the viewer to become part of this multiplicity, and in the daily gestures of a routine that is not ours, but which are inscribed as identity in the implied presence of an absent body that has used a bed. These implicitly inhabited objects become part of the self and are means by which the self expresses its innermost feelings.
The second part of the exhibition allows for a more immediate exploration of the body as an object inhabited by consciousness. A body that offers itself for use and which, through kicking, dancing, running, shrinking, or stretching, becomes a mirror of the mind and a means of transmitting the self and its identity. The gazes of the different “selves” present in the exhibition give rise to thoughts about the speculative dimension of how we interrelate, and how these lines blur in relation to space and to the other. At the end, the exhibition re-enters a game of hide-and-seek in which the slightest movement transforms all reality.
The self as multiple acts as a celebratory, but equally experimental, space for the tangents of identity in motion. Reflecting that if each gesture creates an instant and, consequently, a memory, we are physical constructions of memories, words, images, and movements. Lastly, the exhibition acts as a place for dialogue between the contradictions and infinite possibilities of the complexity of the subject.
Curated by Carolina Quintela, the exhibition is on display in gallery 4 of the Armando Martins Museum of Contemporary Art (MACAM) until May 4th, 2026.
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