Francisco Menezes (b. 1993) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Lisbon, Portugal. He holds a degree in sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon and attended the Maumaus Independent Study Program. Selected exhibitions in the past include the ‘Paula Rego Prize’ at CHPR (2017, 2018), ‘Essays on Collaboration’ at Pousio, ‘Lovers’, ‘Our Slice of Time’ at Zaratan (2023), ‘Casa Dona Laura’ (2023), Paródia Cega (2024) at Museu Bordalo Pinheiro, among others.
Focusing on drawing and installation practices his work is widely informed by Byung-Chul Han’s notion of the object as a counter-body. The word ‘object’ comes from the Latin verb ‘obicere’, which means to ‘throw at’, ‘put towards’ or ‘reproach’. Hence the object is primarily an Against, something that turns against me, throws itself at me, opposes me, contradicts me, and offers resistance. It’s this notion of the counter-body that interests him and the sum of objects being more than its mere accumulation inscribed in a space between the delocalized and the hyperlocalized.