We are pleased to invite you to the second part of the exhibition Intercultural between France and Portugal – Lisboa Não Seja Francesa.

Following the first part, inaugurated last week at L’Atlas in Paris, in which 13 artists living and working in Lisbon offered the French audience an artistic perspective on their city through various forms of expression, it is now the turn of 11 French artists to share their vision with the Portuguese public.

Through this dual exhibition, Lisbon and Paris do not stand in opposition but rather in resonance. Lisboa Não Seja Francesa invites visitors to question how cities influence artists, observe how identities evolve through cultural dialogues, and see art as a bridge between past and future, tradition and reinvention.

Don’t Forget What You’re Made Of

Once, in a city large enough to hold more than one square,
there lived a fountain and a candle.
Each day, creatures came around them—some with fur like nightfall and mineral teeth,
some feathered with beaks made of steel,
and some that seemed soft but were made of concrete.

And then others, rugged and slithery,
whose opal eyes shimmered with pink, blue, and yellow lights.
They were the ones who gathered in the dark waters, like a presage.

Many, however, were made of root, stem, and leaf.
Their bodies were moved by scent, rustling through the night, 
stretching intricate patterns of sap, petal, and fruit into the sunlight. 

Every day, waters opened and closed, filling ponds and wells.
Dwellers were drawn in by the fountain’s pump, exhaled in the candle’s fiery breath.
They enjoyed it all. They drank the water. They drank the light. They danced in circles.
And then folded mechanically into the rhythm of daily life.

At first, the shadows came softly.
The plant-ones were the first to notice—herbs, shrubs, and flowers bent ever so slightly.
A fold in the air. A subtle shiver. Was this a glitch?

Life was unfolding. It was easy to dismiss.
Citizens kept busy—playing, exercising, curling into one another.
Beyond sitting in the sun—who has time to ponder?

But the furry, the feathered, the rugged, and the concrete ones soon caught up.
There were astonishments, fights, and freeze responses.
Why are our souls now losing their glow?

What happened next was a phantasmagoria of mystery.
Still, it included heart—which made answers not searched far out, but uncovered far in.
And what happened after that was a demonstration of what lives within.

The fountain and the candle got it together, quick.
They passed each other the light. It morphed,
and became myriad fireflies.

Citizens opened their chests as sanctuaries. The little starlights settled in.
There were high and low places. Some were even gleaming in plain sight.

It is said that danger still lingered in the shadows long after.
Still, flames only grew brighter.

With each connection, each intention, and each loving thought,
they always remembered to tend to their inner glows.

Cristina Sanchez-Kozyreva