The Duerckheim Collection exhibition, "Vexation of spirit", at the Serralves Museum is something of a gore-filled hallucination. It is one of the few exhibitions shown by the institution to carry warning notices about the images implied and displayed. Gore appears here in all its force: Hermann Nitsch’s works feature blood; Francisco Goya’s include dismemberment; and Damien Hirst’s pieces present viscera in theatrical, startling forms.
The Chapman brothers at Serralves Museum
Despite the spectacle of the exhibition, which includes figures such as Anselm Kiefer, its real stand-outs are the British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. The brothers are renowned for provocative, controversial work. Emerging in the 1990s in association with the Young British Artists movement, they explore violence, war, consumerism and morality, often through sculpture, installations and the alteration of historical imagery.
Drawing on Goya and popular culture, the Chapmans test ethical and aesthetic boundaries. They use black humour and visual shock to criticise contemporary society. The series "One day you will no longer be loved" is particularly striking: a group of portraits has been altered, with the people depicted returning to a museum - this time as the undead.
Miniature worlds of horror in "Vexation"
Another hellishly overwhelming work is "The End of Fun", a miniature world in which Nazis killed by other Nazis coexist with numerous monsters, including sharks bearing swastikas.
In the same room, within the sixth chapter of the exhibition, entitled "Vexation", is "What the Hell", a miniature model that seems to have emerged from Bosch’s imagery. It contains mutilated bodies and heads, alongside scenes of appalling sexual violence. These are dozens of small horror stories involving those who are no longer loved.
"Vexation of spirit"
- Serralves Museum, Porto
- Ticket (Museum + Park): €24
- Until 1 November
- Opening hours: 10:00–18:00
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