Curated by Sofia Marçal
February 12 to March 22, 2026
National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon

The exhibition brings together drawings of flying seeds — minimal forms that encapsulate the potential of life and evoke the human condition: leaving, moving, transforming.

Through subtle glazes and attentive, delicate drawing, the artist gives shape to a sensitive landscape. Her work stems from walks and a prolonged relationship with nature, where observation is a gesture of permanence and attention. Deriva reveals what usually goes unnoticed — discreet forms, fragile and essential structures — making the silent dynamics of life visible.

In a global context of climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, forced displacement of populations and growing geopolitical instability, Deriva takes on a particular resonance. The flight of a seed — fragile, exposed to the winds, dependent on where it will land — mirrors the vulnerability of millions of human lives in transit, as well as the precariousness of ecosystems themselves. Seeds thus become images of survival, adaptation and reinvention in scenarios of uncertainty.

To drift is not to lose oneself: it is to respond to the forces of the world, to seek living conditions, to put down roots where possible. At a time when territories are changing, borders are hardening and the ecological balance is becoming fragile, Sofia Arez’s work reminds us that movement is structural to life — and that, even in instability, the possibility of a future persists.