« Thinking, talking, writing about each other, is perhaps one of the most ungrateful and imprecise exercises one could do. Not in the cognitive sense of understanding the other, but in the relativity that always brings about a deep understanding of the changing reality that involves both the other and each one of us. Art, however, has in its essence, the capacity to allow it, giving us the privilege of feeling the universe that surrounds us, while looking through Place and Time (…)

Bruno Miguel, son of a Mozambican-Portuguese mother and Portuguese father, grew up in Brazil. When he was three years old, he visited Portugal in passing. Today, after almost four decades, he returns here with a feeling of exotic nostalgia about the memories that were transmitted to him about Portugal and its culture. He comes here with a great desire to connect with his family, including his mother, who left Brazil a few years ago. Bruno, comes here for a family investigation, in a scientific-sentimental search for memories of places, beings and cultures - challenging himself to know what would be the impact of knowing and experiencing Portugal from his family's memories. What would be their impact on his artistic practice? How would he balance the real with the imaginary through his art in the face of new places and feelings?

The exhibition "O Bom Filho a Casa Torna (The Prodigal Son Returns Home)" is a strong and honest sharing about his artistic journey and his intense experiences, and learnings between Brazil and Portugal. The large mural installation "Even the most flowery and fruitful of the trees is structured in rough and deep roots" is created from several crochets made by four generations of women of his family, which are entwined between the white lines of crochets that support family photographs from the beginning of the last century to the present day, which merge with deep memories that tell the life experiences of his godmother and aunt since childhood. This is perhaps one of the works in this exhibition that best demonstrates the courage of this artist to exhibit personal family plots with the motivation to use Art as a regenerating methodology of memories. And in so doing, it mirrors the reality of many other families in the world, in an aesthetically poetic way imbued with a strong sense of healing. What is the importance of introspection? What is the impact of trauma? What is the importance of sharing pain for self-regeneration of us and the other? What is the importance of understanding the truth of the other? What is the value of life?

Bruno Miguel transports us to a broader, deeper universe that will certainly touch us all through this work of profound reading. Undoubtedly a memorial to women who, having the courage to raise their truest voice, overcome their deep wounds and in fearlessness, transform them into victories of life… »

– excerpt from the exhibition essay “The Questions We Never Ask Ourselves” by Inês Valle, 2020.