Thomas Ferreira

Installation

On the ruins of an abandoned church in northern Portugal, a narrative unfolds. A voice – that of a father from the Portuguese diaspora – evokes a life marked by displacement and loss. Facing it, another entity responds, the nature of which remains unspeakable: the memory of stones, a mediumistic figure, or artificial intelligence.

What takes shape is less a narrative than a flow. Fragments appear, shift, contradict one another, and recur. Burlesque interludes deriving from Portuguese folklore emerge as the ghostly traces of a life that never happened – either for him or for his children. They disrupt the flow of the two characters’ conversation just in equal measure reveal certain buried threads.

The installation takes the form of a partial set, a simulacrum whose structure remains visible. Within this ruin, the viewer is invited to take part in a ritual: drawing tarot cards to make images appear within transparent screens: neo-stained glass. Here, the narratives overlap with reality without really settling in it, like so many possibilities left in suspense.

Thomas Ferreira

Découvrir le profil

Born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis in 1999, Thomas Ferreira lives and works in Lille. A visual artist, researcher and multimedia programmer, his work explores the relationship between traces and digital technologies. After studying anthropology in Rouen, he graduated from the University of Lille and the École supérieure d’art Dunkerque-Tourcoing in 2024. He is currently a student at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains and is about to begin a PhD in research-creation. His work examines the forms of disappearance, erasure and deterioration at work in digital environments, whether technical, cultural or social. He explores how the presence of a trace can paradoxically become more intense when it is fragmented or depleted. In 2025, he spoke at the “AI and Image” study day, organised by the journal *Transbordeur* and the Institut pour la photographie of Lille. His work has also been presented by Artagon as part of the Art-Émergence programme at Frac Île-de-France, as well as in several institutions across the region.

Production

Credits