paula damasceno
Through an investigative and iterative practice, I’ve developed a multimodal methodology that merges, contrasts, juxtaposes, and integrates diverse disciplines and media, transforming images into performative and static forms, immersive multimedia spaces, and multisensory experiences.
My project is to destabilize transcultural encounters through a radical acceptance of the unknown. I investigate the shape of protected meanings, the limited accessibility, and the affirmation of difference. Engaging in multimodality, I affirm the interconnectedness of cultural differences, creating spaces that celebrate the complexity of regional and global cosmologies, iconographies, and myths. Exploring themes of sacredness, cultural estrangement, and transcultural (mis)translation, I work with organic and synthetic materials to examine how cultural signifiers shift meaning across transnational contexts - soil, salt, paper, fabric, photography, ephemeral projections, looping video, sound, found objects and objects. My practice emphasizes collaboration and experimentation, producing environments where individual and collective bodies become fluid, porous, and self-defined, challenging conventional notions of individual and group identities and belonging.