O Sentido da Vida

This carved portrait of the writer Valter Hugo Mãe, made in January 2015 at the Primeiro Enfiamento da Barra in Vila do Conde, emerged from the filming of Miguel Gonçalves Mendes' documentary O Sentido da Vida. The film's point of departure is familial amyloid polyneuropathy — known in Portugal as the "doença dos pezinhos" — a hereditary disease historically associated with the region, and the portrait became part of its broader reflection on mortality, memory and the human condition. Carved into the concrete structure overlooking the Atlantic, it links the writer to a landscape marked by departure, return and the circulation of lives and histories, through the collaboration of literature, cinema and visual art.