ISOMATIC, by @isomatic_studio ‘EMPORIO ARMANI’, by @dear.anushka
18th Feb — 10th Mar 2023

PLATO presents site-specific works by two artists who took over and inhabited the different spaces of the gallery. @dear.anushka is a repository of images and messages that build a personal narrative. It is a visual diary of several discarded mattresses that are personified by the author. @isomatic_studio is an illustration project by author Bruno Pinto da Cruz, which proposes a new look at cities. Through isometric drawing, he reinterprets them in a free and imaginary way, repopulated by new colors and characters. Beyond Berlin, Anushka and Isomatic Studio share a strong connection through how they appropriate urban space. In response to the specific Alentejo context, we brought samples of each artist’s work, including the results of their interaction with Évora.

¶ Isomatic Studio is a project run by Bruno Pinto da Cruz. Bruno is a Lisbon based architect. He studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon; and between 2010-16 he collaborated as an architect and illustrator at the atelier LIN Architects in Berlin. It was in 2016 that illustration began to gain relevance. He created his brand Isomatic Studio and, since then, has participated in several exhibitions between Berlin and Lisbon. In Lisbon he has collaborated with several architecture ateliers and occasionally with Garagem Sul-CCB, along with other personal architecture and illustration projects. The last project involves a partnership with the Plato gallery, in Évora, in which the historic areas of the city are flooded with color and fantastic characters. His illustrations offer a new look at cities. Through isometric drawing, he reinterprets them in a free and imaginary way. These are redesigned and repopulated with new colors and new characters.

¶ Anushka is a German text-based visual artist living and working in Lisbon. She studied German Literature & Art/Music, with focus on photography. She worked many years as journalist for various newspapers and radio, as well as an assistant stage director for Theater in Berlin. Anushka‘s recent work and ongoing project is tagging abandoned mattresses: “I find them lying on sidewalks, lean against walls, streetlights, trash bins or trees. Always somewhere where they actually do not belong. Their bulky rectangular silhouettes in various states of preservation, their often unique covers with amazing detailed patterns, as well as the places where they are abandoned never fail to amaze me. These everyday objects carry associations. Our lives have rubbed off on them. Sweat, blood, tears and other bodily fluids have become part of their fabric. A mattress is so much more than just a bed we sleep on. We make love in bed, we read in bed, eat in bed, watch TV in bed, dream in bed, talk in bed, cry and laugh in bed. We’re conceived in bed, born in bed, die in bed. Mattresses are an own little world, our private spaces. Only we can see the traces of our existence on our mattress when we change the sheets. These stains are somehow the indecent side of our lives, our secrets- and we mostly do not allow others to see them. When I find these abandoned stained mattresses on the street, in all their nudity, I feel touched and deeply respectful. I want to give them a voice. They have so many things to tell.”