Welcome to a new edition of CU.RE, the first I’m not gonna attach to a specific month - I decided to be honest with myself and accept that I was just not being as consistent anymore. Thus, I decided to gather January and February as my cultural year has been very rich so far I’m trying to digest everything I see with time.
I bring a lot of recommendations and also some exercises I tried to deepen my immersion and interpretation of each of the artistic experiences I had.
Hopefully, it inspires you to go for your next artistic and cultural contemplation with a different mindset!
ARTISTS OF THE MONTH
Manoella de Medeiros
I first discovered Manoella while watching a video on the Contemporary Art Issue YouTube channel. The short introduction to her work immediately caught my attention and made me curious to learn more about what she does.
The video “Meet the Artist” was the first one suggested afterward, and it was enough to make me even more interested in her practice. What I find especially fascinating is how she brings the idea of archaeology into her work. For Medeiros, archaeology is a way of revealing something that was once hidden, showing that the past - often thought of as something fixed or distant - is actually open to reinterpretation and therefore not unchangeable.
“…each new discovery of an archaeological site forces us to rewrite history, and in doing so, re-signify the present and the future.”
I really like this poetic vision she has of this field and how she connects it to her artistic process in both metaphorical and physical way. One series of works that stood out to me is where she literally digs into surfaces, uncovering layers of paint or walls. It feels almost like watching an excavation, where each layer reveals something that was there before but had been covered over time.
Read more and see her work here:
Other suggestions:
MOVIES
I don’t know if it’s my algorithm, but if I were you I’d probably be rolling my eyes by now seeing another reflection and review of the Oscar nominees.
However, as I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I really want cinema to become a more constant part of my life, and having so many good things being released and scrutinized really motivates me to watch and develop my own perspective on that.
I decided to buy a 4-month cinema membership in February, and it was already worth the money, as a single ticket costs around 15€ and I already went four times while paying 19€ monthly. In the future, I would like to write an article reflecting on how physical and monetary accessibility are essential for culture to be a part of our lives.
Sentimental Value - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Director: Joachim Trier
Genre: Drama
Review: I’m writing this just minutes after finding out that this film won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. For me, this recognition is more than deserved, and even if it hadn’t happened, it would still be my favorite of this Oscars season.
Sentimental Value conquered me in all the possible ways, from script to picture to cast… and the fact that it is one of the lowest-budgeted among the Oscar nominees makes it even more special - sometimes, less is better!
I would say it is a slow story, but I found myself questioning everything throughout the whole movie. It is about family dynamics and life occasions and events that lead to future consequences.
From the very first scenes, we sense that the main character, Nora, is dealing with some mental health issues - an element that later recedes into the background for much of the film. When her mother dies and her father returns to Norway from Switzerland, where he moved after the divorce, Nora and her sister are confronted again with a fraternal relationship with several open wounds. Also, her father, a film director writing the script for his upcoming film, wants Nora to play the main character - a role he wrote specifically for her, which she refuses, partly out of resentment toward his long absence and partly because of the lingering pain of not feeling recognized for her own work as a theater actress.
The film moves forward through the process of finding a new actress to replace Nora, while gradually bringing echoes of the family’s past to the surface.
There are many layers within the story, and what I appreciated the most was how real everything felt - it was so simple, but at the same time full of nuances that make it feel like it could be the reality of any of us. Especially the ending really stayed with me, not only because of what happens, but also because of the cinematographic choices - something I am becoming more and more aware of.
Another element I really liked was how something that could easily have been sidelined actually becomes almost a character in itself: the house.
If you’ve already seen the movie, you probably know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do. It’s a beautiful reflection on how each of us expresses love and affection, deals with an unresolved past, and how art can sometimes become a way to process and transform those feelings.
Hament - ★ ★ ★ ★
Director: Chloé Zhao
Genre: Drama
Review: Talking about the power of art, three days after this strong experience at the cinema I went to see Hamnet.
I won’t get too much into its plot because if you have been on social media over the last weeks, you might already have an idea of what it is about. I just want to say that I found it extremely interesting how, despite being very different, my two experiences at the cinema that week really made me reflect in different ways about family dynamics and, indeed, the power of art to express our inner world and pain.
Once again, I loved everything about this film. There’s not a single error: the picture is perfect, the music stays with us long after watching the movie, and of course, the cast is the best I have seen lately. Also, as with Sentimental Value, Jessie Buckley’s Oscar win for Best Actress was obvious to me from the moment she was nominated.
I watched it with Dutch subtitles, and since the actors had very strong British and Irish accents, there were moments when I couldn’t fully understand the dialogue. But that only contributed to my deep immersion in the film, as I paid double attention to all their expressions and the characters’ performances.
I was perhaps one of the only people in the room who didn’t cry, and I think that’s partly because there were some details within the dialogue that I missed - or maybe it was simply because I was impressed by so many things the movie was portraying. Something that also caught my attention was the role of silence in the script. Especially the last scene - which you’ve probably seen a million times in the last few weeks - is absurdly powerful and well done in that sense. It’s amazing how there is this moment when there isn’t a single line of dialogue, and with just the play, the music, and all the incredible cinematography and camera choices in this film, it becomes one of the most powerful scenes cinema has seen in recent years. Also, somewhere in the middle of the film, there is a truly striking moment, made all the more powerful by the fact that the music stops, giving way to silence and Jessie Buckley’s powerful performance!
I could not recommend going to watch this movie more! Just make sure to bring a pack of tissues with you!
Other filmes I've seen:
Marty Supreme (2025) - ★ ★ ★ ★
Director: Josh Safdie
Genre: Sport/DramaTár (2022) - ★ ★ ★ ★
Director: Todd Field
Genre: Drama
✎ WATCHING EXERCISE ✎
Try going to a film without hearing any opinions or even reading the synopsis beforehand.
All the films mentioned here were watched this way, knowing as little as possible about their premise. This way, more chances are that you are surprised in a good way, at the end, you go with no expectations and your experience is only yours.
MUSIC
Raye’s Concert - Amsterdam 28th January
There aren’t enough words to describe this experience. I already knew I’d go crazy seeing Raye live, but the experience of going alone to a concert by someone I admire so much is something I’ll never forget. It was two hours filled with all kinds of emotions: from shedding tears while listening to the honesty in her voice, to awakening my old soul with her jazzy and funky touch, all the way to getting into the rave vibe. As if hearing her voice and creativity live weren’t enough, I had the privilege of hearing many songs from her upcoming album, set to be released on 27th March - which made me even more excited.
The whole world should know this woman, her voice, her words, and her power to fight against injustice in the music industry.
Album Geography - Tom Misch
A perfect album to accompany everything, if you like a little bit of everything, from jazz, R&B, hip hop, grooves, and disco. My sister unlocked this memory for me, and it has been great company over the last few weeks.
Favorite tracks:
Man Like You
Movie
Album A Tábua de Esmeralda - Jorge Ben
If you want to boost your mood and appreciate the beauty of brasilian music.
Favorite Tracks:
Menina Mulher da Pele Preta
Alquimistas
Album Deadbeat - Tame Impala
A very ecletic one and good way to enter Tame Impala’s universe.
Favorite Tracks:
Dracula
Loser
BOOKS
Nem todas as Flores Morrem de Pé - Luísa Sobral
This is the literary debut of Luísa Sobral - a Portuguese singer-songwriter - and, although I have never followed her career, this book clearly shows how words are capable of creating so many beautiful things by taking on so many different shapes.
In the preface, the author explains that the stories she hears and knows serve as inspiration for her lyrics. She notes that in this case the story was too long for a song, so she decided to venture into writing it as a book.
Of the many things I liked about it, the language - so poetic yet at the same time accessible and raw - was what struck me the most. She plays a lot with words and their meanings, and I have countless underlined passages that made me close the book and reflect for a good few seconds on what I had just read and on her capacity to look beyond.
Acordava do pesadelo para viver o pesadelo acordada.
(She would wake up from the nightmare only to live through the nightmare while awake)
Cada árvore é uma mãe. Vê os filhos que nascem e partem. Nunca abandona o seu lugar. Morre de pé.
(Every tree is a mother. It watches its children come into the world and leave. It never leaves its place. It dies standing.")
Then, the way the narrative is constructed is something I also found interesting. The story is told across two different timelines, and as it unfolds, we realize just how closely they’re connected.
I really liked this approach and the fact that, while reading, I learned about the political landscape of Europe at the time the Berlin Wall was built. I love it when literature - even if it’s not the main focus - helps us learn something about the world.
Deus na Escuridão - Valter Hugo Mãe
This book is about love. About maternal, fraternal, and romantic love. It makes us reflect on how the feeling of protecting the “weaker” ones can, in the end, be a way of underestimating their capacities and perhaps an unconscious condescending attitude.
I have a lot of sentences and even full paragraphs underlined thanks to the beautiful metaphors with which Mãe always dresses his stories. Nevertheless, having read this one immediately before Sobral’s, I came to the conclusion that I really do like the poetics of Valter Hugo Mãe’s writing style, but sometimes it can be a bit too much - at least for my personal experience.
From time to time, I find myself mentally tired trying to grasp the sense of the story behind all the ornaments he uses. I guess that it is what makes his writing so striking within Portuguese contemporary literature.
✎ READING EXERCISE ✎
After reading these two books, the fictional worlds we create in our minds when reading felt very concrete - something I hadn’t experienced in a long time. For that reason, and because I didn’t want to forget them - even if a movie were eventually made about these books, no director would make it the way I imagined it - I decided to try to materialize them, or at least make them visible somehow. So, I created two private Pinterest folders to which I added pictures as similar as possible to what I had pictured in my mind while reading. Believe me when I say the combination is really weird but for me it makes sense. I challenge you to do the same, to bring to life what literature sows in your mind
EXHIBITIONS
This year has been a bit less fast-paced when it comes to exhibitions.
Even though I work part-time in a museum and it’s also my field of study, since I started my internship, by the end of the day all the places I want to visit are already closed. So I’ve been trying to find other opportunities, such as exhibition openings - which are usually after hours - or previews, to see the art that is being shown around the city.
Here is what I saw recently:
One and Three Books: Part 2
⚲ BG2 - University of Amsterdam
Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour
ⴵ 13.02.2026 — 17.05.2026
⚲ Van Gogh MuseumDesign World: Through the Eyes of Tata Ronkholz
ⴵ 14.02.2026 — 21.06.2026
⚲Huis MarseilleBody As Resistence
ⴵ 14.02.2026 — 21.06.2026
⚲Huis MarseilleAbout this exhibition, I have way too many thoughts and things to share this time. I’ll leave it for another issue.
ⴵ 14.02.2026 - 2.08.2026
⚲ Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamIn Frequencies We Cannot Name: Language, Sound, Silence
Part of Warmoes Biënnale
⚲ Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
If you’re reading this, thank you for reading it all the way through—even if it was just a quick skim.
That’s all for now in this issue of CU.RE.
Wait for your next click!