What is Mala de Cartão ?

Interviews available in each person's folder

Mala de Cartão

In any personal project I create, it's impossible not to merge the two biggest parts of me, the creator and the individual. As a creator, it's my job to show any subject that I choose to work on in an appealing way; as an individual, it is inevitable that I choose exclusively what surrounds and fills me. I intend that one day my portfolio on the subject serves as a reference, inspiration or comfort to someone, therefore, I am starting this project that allows each of the people who participate in it, the opportunity to express themselves with the total freedom that is due to them. After all, it should always have been like this.

Having created F64.1 and Corpo Meio Cheio/Body Half Full (a book and a short-film that portray what has been like for me to go through the transition process) I’ve already had the opportunity to feel heard, safe and understood by several people when exhibiting these same projects. As an artist and a trans man myself, I want to give that same opportunity to others in my own community. Added to this will is the fact that there are only a few Trans artists doing projects on this topic, especially in Portugal.

For this work, I decided to talk, showcase and give an “open stage” to the Trans community, more specifically in Leeds, UK. Understand the functioning of the health system, both public and private, the cost of living as a Trans person in this country, society's view of the community and how they are respected (or disrespected), the relationship with their families and friends, ask them about their own transition and their views and hopes for the future and reflections on the past.

Physical Outcome

While Portugal's a small country, currently with around 11 million inhabitants, the number of citizens has always been multiplying throughout the world, through Portuguese communities in various countries. The emigration of Portuguese people in search of a better life has always been a common occurrence and the same context can be applied to what I was doing in England. I decided to leave the country where I lived for 22 years to study abroad and create a better future for myself.

In the 70s, the Portuguese Fado singer Linda de Suza described the feeling of having to leave her home country in search of a better life in an unknown place. The interpreter popularized the term Mala de Cartão (“Cardboard Bag”) symbolizing the emotional and physical baggage that each one carries with them when leaving their homeland.

This project's purpose is to give the community their time to shine and show how Trans people live (and sometimes survive) in a certain place, bearing in mind its own risks. That being said, this project consists of portraits and interviews of Trans and Gender Non-Conforming people in the UK. On the physical suitcase itself, the portraits, QR codes that will give access to the interviews and some quotes from each of the interviews, will be pasted onto it having then, created my own Mala de Cartão. I decided to create postcards as a physical product as well. This element also carries the feeling that I was a foreigner in the UK looking to build a better future for myself in the arts world.