Inês Zenha’s Ressurreição connects complexities of gender and transformation to critical questions of persistence and survival. The artist’s first solo exhibition in Portugal presents an acute philosophical statement through a multifaceted all-white installation of a bath. A shower curtain obstructs the initial view of the main installation, which consists of an abandoned shower, a set of basins with water pouring from one to the other, and a tiled platform connected to the side walls via lifelike tubes, in addition to an altar with a sculpted orchid flower and several basins mirroring the first basin set. The installation is completed by sculptures of plants growing from the drains and tiles of the platform in its midst.

Private and public institutions and structures, administrative apparatuses for central and local decision-making, legislation on cultural policies, statements, museums, foundations, competitions, application forms, judging panels, diplomas, commissions, networks, awards, acquisitions, grants, financial and symbolic support programmes with strategical-ideological purposes, ethnic, social, and age quotas, canonisations, regulations—the State reflected everywhere. In intrusive fashion, art and culture are quite often put at the service of the State to support that which, both socially and politically, it is unwilling or unable to counter or carry out.