Maria Madeira

A new installation and performance video by the internationally renowned visual artist.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Kiss and Don't Tell, this book presents Maria Madeira's work representing Timor-Leste in its inaugural pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the independence of Timor-Leste. Maria Madeira is one of Timor-Leste's most significant contemporary visual artists working internationally, yet her practice is deeply embedded in local traditions, concerns and histories. Kiss and Don't Tell is a new site-specific installation utilising local materials such as tais (traditional textile), betelnut, earth and pigments. Her performative installation draws on the collective memories of her foremothers. Responding to the Venice Biennale's overarching theme "Foreigners Everywhere", Madeira imbues her work with her lived experience of displacement, having grown up in a refugee camp in Portugal with her mother.