Yuli Yamagata: Alô?

Alô? is the first part of a long-term project developed in co-production with Escola das Artes, in Porto. 

Yuli Yamagata's project presents a universe where strangeness, humor, and irony intersect in a deeply visual and performative language. The exhibition is organized around a new film conceived by the artist specifically for the occasion, in which an apparent human being questions whether his existence is merely the dream of a snail. Based on this fantastic narrative, Yamagata expands her reflection on parallel realities and the coexistence of infinite versions of ourselves, proposing an immersive journey between the unusual and the everyday, the absurd and the logical, infinite expansion and claustrophobic confinement. 

A set of new sculptures complement the film, adding complexity from a formal point of view. These appear as material and narrative processes in constant transformation, linking the artist's imagination to notions of the grotesque, mutation, and hybridity, and giving shape to exuberant figures that oscillate between seduction, discomfort, and even repulsion.

Yuli Yamagata was born in São Paulo in 1989 and graduated in Fine Arts, specializing in Sculpture, from the University of São Paulo. Since 2015, she has been exhibiting her work regularly in Brazil and internationally. Of Japanese descent, she has developed an interest in various aspects of the culture, such as shibori, a manual tie-dye technique, ikebana, and manga. To create her pieces, Yuli Yamagata primarily works with fabrics, layering different textiles, textures, and patterns — from silk to velvet — while incorporating materials such as resin and paint, as well as objects of varied nature, whether organic or artificial. Yuli describes her creative process as something that originates either from the physicality of the material itself or from a preselected narrative. Her works, always rich in layers, references, and overlaps, invite the audience to decipher and interpret the forms and origins of her objects, creating an intense interplay with the viewer.