Coisa-ponta, 2026
a duet by
Ana Rita Teodoro & Márcia Lança
One thing right plus one ting wrong
When we were little, we skinned both our knees; with our knees skinned, we climbed a very tall staircase, taller than the pine tree, taller than the cypress. We carried on climbing, stairs that turned into towers, towers that turned into palaces. It seemed as though spring was playing a trick on us. So we decided that from then on we would never lie again; from then on we would never be ourselves again. Then we fell from high to low, to where there was nowhere lower, and we screamed! We screamed for years, an old, mouldy scream, until a cricket—a friend of the scream—came out of our mouths. We looked at it and asked: when will the snow come? When will time run out? When will the festivities begin? It replied: chirp chirp.
Coisa-Ponta stems from a long-standing bond between Ana Rita Teodoro and Márcia Lança: back in 1999, when they first saw surrealist art together. This event opened a fascinating window, leading them to embark on an artistic practice guided by a deliberate suspension of intention as a means of accessing the unimaginable. Surrealism also afforded them a multifaceted space that no single discipline could provide on its own — being a surrealist is a serious matter.
In this work, they seek to bring their ethical and aesthetic affinity into dialogue with surrealist techniques and processes. By activating their modes of practice as a compositional strategy — the interweaving of materials, the deactivation of conscious action, the bringing together of things that would, at first glance, be separate — Coisa-Ponta creates a disparate space where the sensible and the nonsensical operate as random queens.
In this ongoing project, developed in collaboration with art historian Sofia Lapa, we set out to reflect on and question what it means to be a surrealist woman in 2026, and how this legacy continues to resonate and transform contemporary artistic practices.
— Ana Rita Teodoro and Márcia Lança
☁ Descriptive account of the creative process:
The desire to create a piece together stems from the bond that began in 1999 when we first met at Chapitô. At the age of 17, we wanted to be circus artists, but during a visit to the Centre for Modern Art, we saw surrealist art that spoke to us through its paintings. In the years that followed, we attended classes together at Chapitô, C.E.M. and Forum Dança, and would get up early to spontaneously sit in on Delfim Sardo’s classes at the School of Fine Arts. We gradually realised, each in our own way, that combining the circus with dance opened up a creative space for us that neither discipline alone could provide. And there were times when we’d find ourselves in a council flat and one of us would watch the other chewing on false teeth whilst spinning round and round. Together in Coisa-Pedra (sorry, Coisa-Ponta), we aim to explore the surrealism of the ridiculous, of nonsense, of the illogical, and of a non-linear, non-narrative temporality. We want to revisit our much-loved Uncle Mário Cesariny and disguise ourselves as the surrealist women of 2026. We want to work with a DIY (do-it-yourself) aesthetic, using whatever we find in the rubbish and at the local stationery shop, inspired by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Agnès Varda’s gleaners. To give a clearer idea: we have two sewing machines and a wealth of hidden knowledge. Nonsense is a political force, a way of thinking that doesn’t fit into neoliberal and phallocentric-capitalist logic – when there’s a party in bed, we put on our pyjamas and I say, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk! – Coisa-Ponta is an unknown place where prior knowledge holds no sway. To expose oneself to ridicule is to go against the logic of success, of looking good, of coming across well in a photo.
