The Atlantic crashes against the shore just below the walls of Forte Santo António da Barra, making it the perfect setting for VIGIA — a thought-provoking new exhibition in Estoril that invites us to see the ocean not only as a vast body of water, but as muse, memory, and message. Opening on May 24 and running until June 1, VIGIA unites the work of three artists — Alain Richard, Sofia Barros, and Xana Nunes — each interpreting the sea through their own visual language.
Curated by Sofia Barros, the exhibition is more than a showcase — it’s an invitation to feel the ocean, to contemplate its rhythms and textures, and to reflect on our connection to the natural world. Within the stone walls of the 17th-century fortress, visitors will encounter three distinct visions, all rooted in a shared reverence for the sea.
Sofia Roldão de Barros is no stranger to blurring the lines between environmental consciousness and artistic expression. As a visual artist and art director with a passion for nature and public engagement, her work is guided by the elements themselves. Often created outdoors using natural pigments and preserved flora, her pieces convey a deep sensitivity to the environment. Barros’s contribution to VIGIA is both aesthetic and curatorial — she brings her gentle, reflective ethos to the fore, crafting an experience that encourages visitors to slow down and connect with the ocean in a more mindful, intimate way.
Xana Nunes, known for her creative ventures across fashion and culture, brings a deeply personal and sensory approach to the exhibition. Her relationship with photography is long-standing — a legacy inherited from her grandparents — and it informs her art with emotional depth and quiet nostalgia. At VIGIA, she presents multisensory installations that transform the fortress into an immersive marine landscape. Through abstracted seascapes, macro details of nature, and alternative printing methods, Xana’s works allow the viewer to experience the see, touch, and even hear the ocean.
Alain Richard, a French-Belgian artist based in Lisbon, brings a minimalist yet powerful perspective. With a background in fashion photography and film, Richard’s work distills the essence of nature into still, poetic moments. His contribution to VIGIA is a series of contemplative seascapes — stripped of human presence, but brimming with emotional resonance. A wave caught in motion, sunlight melting into the horizon, the hush between tides — these images are less about narrative and more about presence. Through Richard’s lens, the ocean becomes a space for meditation, for noticing, and for simply being.
Whether you’re drawn by the art, the setting, or the sea itself, this exhibition is a quiet, powerful call to look — and feel — a little deeper.
Vigia at Forte Santo António de Barra
Avenida Marginal, 73
Estoril
Hours: 12:00 to 18:00
Entrance: Free
