Carla Cabanas: O Bestiário at Galeria Quadrum

Carla Cabanas presents *O Bestiário*, an installation of sculptures inspired by the imaginary beings collected by Jorge Luis Borges in *The Book of Imaginary Beings*. The exhibition features guardian fish, impossible birds, hybrid creatures, and mythical figures, creating a territory where reality and fiction intertwine.

Using gold leaf as a metaphor for transformation and repair, Cabanas draws on Japanese wabi-sabi and kintsugi traditions, highlighting imperfection and the marks of time. Photographs from her own family history bring these fantastic creatures closer to the human condition, turning them into mirrors of our vulnerabilities, memories, and desires.

Spread across three interconnected nuclei, *O Bestiário* guides visitors on a journey between the strange and the familiar, where imagination reveals deep affinities with the experience of life. The exhibition is held at Galeria Quadrum, located in the Palácio dos Coruchéus.