Tangled Narratives

The exhibition “Tangled Narratives” occured in Lisbon during Lisbon Design Week with curation from Joana Astolfi and Inês Baptista da Câmara. It was an immersive art experience curated and installed within the unexpected context of a functioning inside a beautiful antique space but modern hair salon. The project explores the intimate, cultural and aesthetic dimensions of hair through a multidisciplinary lens, using the salon not only as a site of transformation but also as a space of storytelling.

Curatorial Approach

Curated with the intention of breaking the boundary between everyday rituals and contemporary art, the show reimagines the hair salon as both gallery and studio. The exhibition brings together artisans, artists, photographers, designers, ceramists, painters, illustrators, whose works explore hair as a metaphor for identity, power, memory, and resistance.

By integrating art into the salon’s architecture, the line between artwork and environment blurs, inviting visitors and clients alike to encounter creativity in a space usually associated with personal maintenance and beauty.

Invited artists

Alquimista Ceramics, Bárbara Bulhão, Bela Silva, Carla Castiajo, Clara Não, Diogo Barros Pires, Diogo Potes, defio rugs de Filipa Won, Henriette Arcelin, Hunchback Society, Ieva Ragustaike, Inês Norton, Joana Astolfi, João Abel Mota, Júlio Dolbeth, Leonor Pinto, Lidija Kolovrat, Luís Câmara, Mané Pacheco, Oficina Marques, Pedra no Rim, Pedro Batista, Ricardo Cruz, Rita Kroh, Roberta Goldfrab, Rui Aguiar, Sam Baron x GUR, Sanda Vuckovic, Sofia Saleme, Vasco Águas.

This text was written amidst a tangle of mountains, airplane trips, car rides, trains, by the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. What is life on Earth as a human being if not a tangle of emotions, moments, memories? The tangle needs to be untangled. There are several ways to deal with this reality: we pull our hair out forcefully accompanied by sounds and words of irritation, or we cut it with scissors to avoid dealing with the problem, or we simply disregard it because one day it will resolve itself, or, as happens most of the time, it will just get thicker, more confusing, and more labyrinthine. All of these are ways to untangle. In this process, a story develops, a narrative. One obtains a why, a beginning, protagonists and antagonists, and a so-called “end of the story.” All of this can be recounted in different forms. And, over time, the “mood” of the interlocutor, the openness of mind, and the attention of the listener, as well as the context of the narrative, add details, angles, and perspectives. And yet, we get more tangled. The hair knot demands an exercise of deep patience, with resilience and calm, to reflect on its origin and its future. The act of combing in the morning is intimately responsible for the start of the day: a sign that we all know well, “I’m almost ready, I just need to comb my hair.” Or, it indicates a transformation and a need for reinvention: “I don’t know what hairstyle to wear to Isabelinha’s wedding.” It’s a moment of change that must be marked because one wouldn’t start the day of a big event without visiting the hairdresser. “You would look so good as a redhead with those green eyes”: the opinion of someone who loves us most, painting us like a canvas. It’s affection.“A good haircut changes someone’s life”: who hasn’t heard this poem? Or the more intimate dreams and projections: “I need to go to Turkey for a hair transplant.” enter Inspariya ad “Hold my hair”: feeling the intensity of the hand of the one who desires us most, whether playing with each strand of hair or tying it in a ponytail. “I’ve kept my mother’s and grandmother’s braid for years in a little paper box”: a living talisman of the spirit that reminds us who we were at a certain point in life. “Do you know how to braid? I want one of those that come from up here”: it’s about companionship and friendship; children and friends gather in the school hallway, perched on a high wall, all lined up, teaching and braiding each other’s hair. “I love the smell of your hair”: secretly smelling the hair of those who gave us hugs of happiness, who offered their shoulder for tears or their lips for kisses, and recalling how memory can transport us when that scent crosses our path... Perhaps it even shows up in an unexpected letter, inside an old envelope, that waited for the right day to travel. Tics of pushing hair back, curling locks with fingers, trimming split ends, twirling hair when stressed, hiding hair with caps with inspirational phrases “Today I did Nothing” (Thomas Lélu) in the winter, and straw hats from the Algarve for the beach, using hairpins shaped like hibiscus f lowers, or buying endless hair elastics in shapes, colors, and materials that even if we buy one every day, another one hides in a bag or a coat pocket... We project who we are in our hair. And that is the ode you can find here. The artists reflected. And as expected, a higher level of tangling arises among the number of artists, objects, artistic expressions, and interpretations that you will find here. As spectators, choose the best way to untangle here and we hope it helps to unravel the best technique for untangling whatever may come.