Pedro Pires, Dissimulation for the future, 2023. Fibra di vetro e tessuto, 49x57x32 cm. Courtesy Trium Art Gallery, Monza.

Pedro Pires (Luanda, 1978) is an Angolan artist whose practice investigates the relationships between identity, migration and human rights through a strongly material and process-based language.

His work, which primarily includes sculpture and drawing, focuses on the transformation of industrial and recycled materials, developing a research in which the physical dimension of matter becomes a vehicle for reflection on the conditions of contemporary human experience.

Raised in Luanda in a context marked by profound social and political transformation, Pires developed an early interest in the processes of metamorphosis and the expressive potential of materials. His practice focuses on the use of industrial elements—metals, plastics, and other waste materials—which he reworks through direct and intense interventions, transforming their original function into a new symbolic and narrative form.

At the heart of his research is the condition of the individual within a world traversed by mobility, dislocation, and change. His works address themes of identity, exile, loss, and resilience, connecting the personal dimension and the collective experience. His work reflects on the dynamics of alienation and belonging, questioning the relationship between the individual, territory, and cultural memory in the context of contemporary migration.

A distinctive element of his artistic language is the use of material as a visual metaphor for tension and transformation. Metals and rigid surfaces are subjected to extreme physical processes—heating, bending, cutting, and shaping—generating dynamic and often unstable forms, in which structural strength and emotional fragility coexist. His sculptures are characterized by intense formal energy, while his drawings introduce a more intimate and reflective dimension, creating a dialogue between internal experience and the universal dimension.

His practice develops through a balance between visual impact and conceptual awareness, in which the transformation of matter becomes a device for reflecting on processes of crisis, adaptation, and rebirth. The works are configured as traces of physical and symbolic action, translating the social and psychological tensions of the present into artistic form.

Overall, Pedro Pires’s work offers a reflection on transformation as a central condition of contemporary experience. Through physical interventions on matter and tension-filled forms, his works invite us to interrogate the dynamics of vulnerability and resistance that define individual and collective identity in an ever-changing world.

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