Welcome to Rui Mourãos special performance, video installation and screening of chapter 1-3. This in addition to a conversation with the artist.
Rui Mourão presents
Segredo do Artesão
OPEN HOURS: >Times to visit the installation will be published here <
DATES: TBA
WELD: Norrtullsgatan 7, Stockholm, Sweden
METRO: Odenplan (green line)
For this pre-announcement, open hours, and other time related events are pending.
Segredo do Artesão
Segredo do Artesão, is a six channel video installation presented at Weld in Stockholm. The transdisciplinary project merging art with anthropology, philosophy, and indigenous epistemologies to explore embodied forms of knowledge. Developed between Europe and the Amazon, it amplifies marginalized voices through intercultural, artistic, and ritual practices. The work of Rui Mourão challenges dichotomies such as nature and technology or North and South, proposing a holistic vision of sustainability that is ecological, cultural, and spiritual. By valuing ancestral knowledge and fostering collaboration with indigenous communities, it supports both cultural preservation and tangible ecological practices. Ultimately, the project positions diversity as a generative force for rethinking knowledge, sustainability, and shared futures.
In depth information available in the entrance at WELD.
Segredo do Artesão The Artisians Secret.
The Artist
Rui Mourão is based in Lisbon, Portugal. His work spans video art and installation, performance, dance, writing, and poetic imagery with a signum of blending audiovisual anthropology with contemporary critical art.
Rui Mourão is currently pursuing a PhD in Artistic Research in Lisbon, with previous studies in Barcelona and Malmö. Mourão holds a post graduate degree in Digital Visual Cultures and a Master degree in Anthropology.
The work has been shown internationally in festivals, exhibitions, and museums across 17 countries, and has received several awards, including at FUSO (Lisbon) and Make Art Not Fear (2022). He has also participated in major events such as LOOP Barcelona and GIBCA Extended.
Alongside his artistic practice, Rui Mourão engages in research, writing, and collaborative projects, and works as a cultural mediator at the National Museum of Theatre and Dance.
Artist website >>>
The installation and performance
At WELD installation includes Segredo do Artesão, consists of the three chapters (see below) as dual projections as well as an immersive total video installation.
Rui Mourão will during the three day installation respond to the space at WELD both for the video installation and the performance. With him in this process are the curators Anna Viola Hallberg and Bruno Marques.
The artist will do performances during the three days. To Be Announced. More info to be added early May.
Conversation on Segredo do Artesão
Feel free to join us foran artist conversation (time/date to be confirmed). Please respond by text message to +46 709356608 if you are interested in participating.
Artist, curators and select others in conversation with on topics relevant to Segredo do Artesão, the artist and ethnographer, video, performance/dance, knowledges perspectives: local, decolonial contingencies, artistic research, museology etc
The Journey
Making the project Segredo do Artesão the artist spent time in Sweden during two residencies. This brought him to address among other things “Gnosjö andan/The spirit of Gnosjö” during the Distancio exhibition on public space and prior to that a feminist Valborg performance ritual later turned in to a video project during Skövde Art Museums residency AiRS. He also lived among the Huni Kuni in Amazonas to continue to allocate local knowledges and traditions. His first visit to Sweden was during his education at Malmö Art Academy.
Chapter 1
Title: Two
Runtime: 39 minutes (16:9)
Filmed in: Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Sweden
” A shamanic journey is presented in a dreamlike succession of double images that oscillate between reality and fiction. From the darkness, poetic layers of meaning are evoked through different spaces, times, and relationships. An experimental field is established between art as ritual and ritual as art: searching for what matters in the trash, creating enigmatic computer games, connecting to the aesthetics of the Huni Kuin people in the Amazon, dancing in a European museum to re-signify the past, saying goodbye with an emotional party in Lisbon, playing with a child in Sweden, following two ex-lovers on a trip through Italy, or wandering around an artist’s studio.” RM
The film received several awards.
The artist about his experience in Skövde, Sweden >>>
Valborg, Feminist performance (with video) >>>
Made with support from Skövde Art Museum
Chapter 2
Title: The Spirit of Gnosjö
Runtime: 30 min (16:9)
Filmed in: Brazil, Portugal, Sweden
” During the pandemic, from Lisbon, I invited people in Gnosjö, Sweden, to send short video clips portraying the “Spirit of Gnosjö.” I combined these with footage filmed in Amazonia with the Huni Kuin, creating a dialogue between man and woman, local and immigrant, person and spirit, linking utopian desires with our troubled present.” RM
The Spirit of Gnosjö, was part of the regional project Distancio, which in addition to Gnosjö includes the towns Mullsjö, Värnamo and Tranås in Jönköping County and was curated by Anna Viola Hallberg.
– The artist in conversation with Lennart Alves, Region Jönköpings län (30 min in Swedish for the first 2 min then in English). 2021 >>>
– “Portugisiske konstnären samlar in filmer om Gnosjöandan: ”Kreativa och envisa människor” 2020 , Värnamo Nyheter>>>
– Distancio, Region Jönköping >>>
Made with support form Region Jönköpings län
Chapter 3
Title: TBA
Runtime: TBA
Filmed in: Brazil, Portugal
For the third chapter of the trilogy, filming will again take place in Europe and the Amazon. Previously Rui Mourão and Filipa Cordeiro developed The Time of the Huacas, a project questioning a Portuguese museum that displays the bodies of deceased Indigenous people. In contrast, during his time in the Amazon, it was Indigenous communities who invited him to support the creation of a museum of their own culture.
April 2026 the third chapter is still in the making. It will premiere at WELD.
Time of the Huacas (website with video) >>>
The Curatorial Team
At WELD, Sweden: Anna Viola Hallberg (se) independent artist/curator with a MsC in International Museum Studies
At UFPA, Orlando Maneschy, PhD independent professor, curator, artist.
Executive: Bruno Marques, PhD.
Professor Auxiliar – História da Arte Contemporânea
Willl be present at WELD until May 15.
Making It
The exhibition was originally set to take place at a remote location BKN, it was moved to WELD in Stockholm for a numer of reasons this was made possible BKN/Björkö Konstnod, walkingaspractice.org and individual artists. For the tour, catalogue and conference traveling with Segredo do Artesão the artist received a generous grant from Direção-Geral das Artes é o organismo da República Portuguesa (área governativa da Cultura, Juventude e Desporto).
The Venue I, Stockholm
WELD is an independent space for experimental processes and knowledge production. The primary focus is on dance and striving towards the creation of contexts and situations that both deepen and expand the art form. Located in central Stockholm.
Special thanks to Anna Koch and Fredrik Whålstedt for sharing space and knowledges.
https://www.weld.se
The Venue II, Stockholm
TBA
Screening of Chapter I – III of Segredo do Artesão + conversation with Artist.
Up Coming
June 2026: Academic conference and exhibition of Segredo do Artesão.
– Conference title: Arte e Alteridade: Práticas Decoloniais, Museologia e Cidadania em Perspetiva Transnacional
– In person: June 4th, 2026
– Venue: Museu da Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), Belém do Pará, Brasil
– Online: June 5th, 2026
– E-Publication
Presenters and writers to be confirmed.
November 2026: Rui Mourão to Malmö Art Academy to lecture and show Segredo do Artesão.
Segredo do Artes
With generous support from:
