Actually, it also occupies the ground floor (the entrance) but the majority of works are in the basement, on purpose, hence the lede. We’ll feed the dream for as long as we can is Managil’s second solo show, the first in a commercial space.

We’ll feed the dream… asks the viewer to go down the stairs and embark on a journey full of dream-like landscapes, made of clouds that are leaking water, and plastic chairs with functions that seem human. In this place, life is leaking water every other minute and we have to find solutions with towels, buckets, small machines or plastic tubes. Every solution is in plain sight. The artist seems to address dark times, possible survival solutions and plastic chairs feeling melancholic.

There is a lot of water in these installations, as also in Spleen that the artist made in February 2022 for the project O Armário, in Lisbon. Managil’s closet was filled with precipitation, in other words rain that comes from clouds but locked inside a closet. There is also an umbrella of disproportionate dimensions. To protect the viewers from the rain? On the first floor, we see an embroidery where we can read: “To everything there is a season/ A time for every cloud under heaven”. Reminding us of Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is A Season) by The Birds.

Lea Managil’s first solo show was called Breathable Objects and occupied the non-profit space, Las Palmas, in 2018. We’ll feed the dream for as long as we can is at Balcony until September 10th (the gallery might close in August). Ana Cristina Cachola wrote the text for the exhibition, available here.