The 2025 edition of the exhibition, Fio de Cera — the second annual exhibition of the Master in Graphic Design and Editorial Projects —, took place from September 29 to October 3, 2025, at the Museum of the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (FBAUP). It opened on September 29 at 5:30 pm.
Works on display: Course Projects and Assignments · Master Dissertations and Reports
Fio de Cera
Thread and wax. Two distinct raw materials, at first unrelated, that come together to bind and support millennia of information and knowledge. Sewn with linen, hemp or silk, on papyrus, paper, leather or skin, the book has traveled through centuries of generations with the same format and construction. The thread is its backbone, the wax its marrow. In the same breath that we say there is no reason to reinvent the wheel, we might say the same of the book. But reinvention can also be encouraged.
Fio de Cera brings together projects conceived by students of the Master in Graphic Design and Editorial Projects in several first-year curricular units, as well as research processes from second-year internships, projects and dissertations. The objects on display explore typographic revivalism and how it is approached today, the importance of the image as an expressive and narrative element, the relationship between illustration and design, and the sensory experience of leafing through the pages of a publication, in explorations of visual rhythm, materials, and printing and binding processes. From the small to the huge, from the book to the poster, from fabric to paper, reinvention is encouraged here.
If the act of sewing together the many pages of a book gives structure to the absurd mass of information in imposition — of text and images, of experiences and narratives —, then perhaps thread and wax bind the materialization of all the knowledge we gather and that exists within us. This knowledge, now organized and immortalized, thus creates an inevitable physical and symbolic relationship between the human being and the book.
Opening performance
At 6 pm: Dios Porás (Por Favor Deus), a performance by Beatriz Oliveira conceived especially for this exhibition. The work starts from two central elements — the thread and the wax that give the exhibition its name —, both understood as symbolic containers of information intrinsic to human evolution.
Works on Exhibition
Ana Pimenta, Ana Sofia Coelho, André do Carmo Gonçalves, Anita Nunes, Beatriz Oliveira, Bruna Chichavel, Bruna Valoura, Bruno Barros, Cláudia Martina, Hugo Carvalho, Hugo Moura, João Sousa, Jorge Santos Duarte, Juan Holguín, Julien Lima, Leonor Carvalho, Lília Amaro, Luís Lopes, Mafalda Ribeiro, Maria Luísa Pinto, Marta Carvalho, Melissa Gaviria Henao, Rita Soares, Roberta Miranda, Sérgio Brito, Taina Silva, Victoria Borges Brites
Exhibition Credits
Curator: Rui Vitorino Santos
Coordination: Rui Vitorino Santos, Cristina Ferreira and Pedro Amado
Organization: the MDGPE Graphic Assembly (Assembleia Gráfica) — Bruna Chichavel, Cláudia Martina, João Sousa, Lília Amaro, Luís Lopes, Maria Luísa Pinto, Marta Carvalho and Roberta Miranda
Installation support: Luís Nunes, Isabel Gonçalves (FBAUP Museum), João Lima and Jorge Garcês