Francisco Trêpa: “Gall Ball” @ CAM curated by MA students of LXC

Francisco Trêpa’s (Lisbon, 1995) ‘Gall Ball’ that is in exhibition in Engawa Space at CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian is curated by students from the Curatorial Practices seminar in the MA program of Culture Studies, under the supervision of Prof. Luísa Santos and resulting from a protocol with CAM and UCP. The exhibition and the related programming serve as a prologue to Institution(ing)s – Co-Creating Inclusive and Sustainable European Art Institutions, a European Cooperation Project that encourages contemporary art and cultural organizations to co-create innovative institutional models that, through experimentation, co-creation, speculation, and advocacy of sustainable futures, contribute to social inclusion, environmental, economic, and artistic transformation.

Francisco Trêpa’s artistic practice explores the interconnections between life forms, metamorphosis, and hybridism. Gall Ball is inspired by the observation of galls found in CAM’s Garden, where the artist first encountered these biological reactions resulting from interactions between plants (such as oaks) and external agents (such as wasps). The effect is a swelling growth on the outside of the plant, providing nutrition and shelter to induce insects.

Trêpa’s fascination stems from the way galls dissolve the tension between interior and exterior, host and parasite, autonomy and symbiosis. Far from being mere defensive reactions, they represent spaces of transformation and biological empathy – microcosms in which the plant, without apparent direct benefit, hosts the presence of the other. In this gesture of natural hospitality, the artist sees a possible inversion of survivalist logic, pointing instead to cooperation as a vital force in life-affected relationships.

The ‘ball’ in the title points to a general rehearsal performed by Trêpa’s constellation of ceramic sculptures. The gallery is understood as an extension of the studio, with a space dedicated to production where the artist will be creating and finishing works. The process of physical and chemical transformation through which clay gives way to ceramics is made visible in the sculptures presented at different stages of the process: raw, unglazed, uncoloured, and finished. Over the course of the exhibition, these forms reveal distinct moments of this crystallization, thus manifesting a body in continuous transmutation until it reaches its irreversible condition.

‘Gall Ball’ includes an associated programme that includes visits, workshops, and other activities.