Born in Funchal, Silvestre Pestana (1949-) holds a degree in Graphic Arts and Design from ESBAP and a master's degree in Art and Design Education from De Montford University. He was a professor at the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra. His work is distinguished by the radical nature of interventions that, from the very beginning, rely on intentional hybridism resulting from the interplay and permutation between linguistic and non-linguistic signs. The contamination that emerged in the Read more...1960s and 70s from the use of diverse graphic materials found support in the use of video and computer media in the 1980s. At this level, it can be said that his computer poetry opened new directions for experimental poetry. By frequently and intentionally mixing issues related to materiality and mediation, his work combines procedures based on digital systems with analog representation. His recent works in the field of performance, in real or virtual spaces like Second Life, are essential to assess how experimental practices interact with the social practices they articulate with. Some of his individual exhibitions include: Acrilic Kunst, Galeria K, Stockholm (1972); Poem/Egg, Galeria C.A.P.C. (1977); Deserted Islands, Galeria Árvore (1979); Radiologies, Galeria C.A.P.C. (1980); Bio-Virtual, Galeria Árvore (1984); Bio-Virtual, Galeria Leo (1984). He is the author of videos such as Ave (1976); Mater (1978); Video Poems (1979); Ovule (1979); A Computer Story (1979); NecroEco (1979); Crosnosgraphs (1979); Pyramid (1979); Homeostasis (1980); Geo-PsychoVerse (1980); Bio-Virtual (1983). In the 1980s, he authored computer-programmed poems for ZX81, ZX82, and later, in a chromatic version for Spectrum, titled Computer poetry. He created poetic-graphic musical scores for Anar Band (Rui Reininho and Jorge Lima Barreto, 1977) and published the book/catalog Águas Vivas (Galerias Alvarez, 2002). He co-organized Poemographies with Fernando Aguiar (a book and traveling exhibition of Visual Poetry in 1985) and co-organized What is Watt? (since 2001). Since 1978, he has participated in the International Biennial of Vila Nova de Cerveira, where he was awarded the Grand Prize during the XII International Biennial of Art of Cerveira in 2003 for his neon installation Águas Vivas. Noteworthy neon installations include Luso Padrão para Marte, 1992/2016; Meteoro Neon para Venus, 2003; and Fractal Trees, 2005. His work was featured in an exhibition in the Nas Escritas PO.EX cycle (Povo Novo Virtual, 2013). His interventions during the Sufoco-Intermundos-Drones V cycle in 2014 at Espaço Mira, Porto, are also noteworthy. He co-organized the First Virtual Second Life Cerveira Biennial (PT) with Celeste Cerqueira during the XVII Biennial in 2013. In Lisbon, he presented the work Sufoco (Galeria Múrias e Centeno, 2015). He was one of the honored artists during the III moment of the Biennial of Maia_2015, with the notable installation Vertigem 04: sociedade aberta. The exhibition Silvestre Pestana: Tecnoforma, curated by João Ribas in 2016, was the first major exhibition dedicated to Silvestre Pestana's work at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Serralves. The following year, he presented Breathless at the Bloom Projects Exchanges Series at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Santa Barbara, California, in partnership with Uma Certa Falta de Coerência. He recently participated in the exhibition of Portuguese Experimental Poetry, CAIXA Cultural Brasília, Brazil, in 2018, with the support of the Embassy of Portugal in Brasília.

Skills: digital print