MaisMenos - Porto #4

This is a Stencil used in the streets by Miguel Januário transformed into a piece.
It is spray painted cardboard and after being used on the streets it was painted with black and blue to create this unique work of art. It has some marks, tape and scratches of the use (see photos).
It is part of a saying from Sophia de Mello Breyner and it was made to critique the censorship politics in the city of Porto just before the pandemic. It is part of a group of four stencils all made with sentences regarding the city, where the "bad" parts were cut-off with blue spray (reminding the blue pencil used during the dictatorship to censor what was not accepted by the regime)
It is a small bit of Portuguese Street Art History and a very unique relic.

Miguel Januário is a Portuguese artist born in 1981. He has a degree in Communication Design and is currently studying for a PhD in Design at FBAUP. He was a collaborator at the cultural intervention space Maus Hábitos and artistic director of Ivity Brand Corp. He is currently Head of Art for Sustainability at CEiiA. He is a member of the PCP. He is the author of '±MaisMenos±’, an intervention project that has become a national and international reference for urban art. He is represented by the Underdogs gallery in Lisbon. At the same time, he is the author of KissMyWalls, a project with a strong urban component related to graffiti, advertising, writing and intervention, which includes several artistic heteronyms – Caos, Mr. Death, Naif, among othors – each with its own visual identity and aesthetics. He has exhibited and/or worked with internationally renowned artists such as Vhils, Shepard Fairey (Obey), Futura, Felipe Pantone, Barry Mcgee, Swoon, AddFuel, Wasted Rita, Icy and Sot, Bordalo II, Mosaik, Ram, Gonçalo Mar, Nomen , among many others.
He has been producing thought-provoking, cutting-edge work both indoors and outdoors in a variety of media – from video to sculptural installations, from painting to performance. Besides numerous illegal public art interventions in several countries, the project has also been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in various institutional contexts, including at Vera Cortês Gallery (Lisbon, 2010), MACE–Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Elvas (Elvas, 2011, 2014), Underdogs Gallery (Lisbon, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021), Caixa Cultural (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Brasilia, 2014), Museu do Côa (Vila Nova de Foz Côa, 2015), Centro de Arte Contemporânea Graça Morais (Bragança, 2015), MUDE–Museu do Design e da Moda (Lisbon, 2016), Museu José Malhoa (Caldas da Rainha, 2016), MACRO–Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (Rome, 2016), Wunderkammern Gallery (Rome, 2017), Celaya Brothers Gallery (México City, 2018), Arco Lisboa (Lisbon, 2018), WTF Gallery (Bangkok, 2018), Interferências MAAT (Lisbon, 2022) and leading art festivals and events such as Walk&Talk Festival (São Miguel, Azores, 2011), Guimarães European Capital of Culture (Guimarães, 2012), La Tour Paris 13 (Paris, 2013), Wool Festival (2014), Esporo (Proença-a-Nova, 2022), Nuart Festival (Stavanger, 2014, 2017), TrashPlant Festival (Tenerife, 2018), Roskilde Festival (Roskilde, 2018), Forgotten Project (Rome, 2016), Iminente Festival (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022), Emergengy Iminente Festival (2020), Iminente Festival Rio de Janeiro (2019), Iminente Festival London (2017), Iminente Festival Marseille (2022), Alter Ego Macau (2018), Mulheres Saramaguianas with Centro Português de Serigrafia and Fundation José Saramago (2022), Esporo (2022), NEBFest Brussels (2022), Caceres Abierto (2023). ±MaisMenos± has also been the subject of two TED talks, at TEDxLuanda (Luanda, 2014) and TEDxPorto (Porto, 2015), and other public and academic lectures.