Questioning and interpellative, Miguel Palma's work often deals with themes related to the technological condition of humanity, the idea of power, belief in images, ecology, and the role of art itself. Based on a personal imaginary in which a taste for the world of machines, motoring and aviation prevails, his practice draws on tools and knowledge from engineering, architecture, and archaeology.

The artist is also recognised for his impulse to archive and collect objects and images, in a process of appropriation and reconversion that reveals a playful dimension of artistic making (evident in the delight with which the artist activates and questions the notions of play, toy, collection and exhibition), and which simultaneously appeals to a critical dimension of the creative and aesthetic act (insofar as it questions the codes and systems of representation of what we call art).

These are the qualities that characterise the work Go Away Green, 2022, which is made up of a series of pre-existing elements – topographical sights and fragments of a toy car track – rearranged as if they were outlining a map. The dominant colour is also significant, referring to the “green screen” visual technique which, in television and film recordings, allows any image to be placed in the background and creates the illusion that the characters are in a different environment.

With its own scale and simultaneous suggestion of a contained route and an open scenario, this strange, open cartography seems to evoke personal memories related to the world of childhood or the universe of motor racing in which the artist has participated, and to suggest a deeper reflection on the transitory nature of existence.

Mapa de Lisboa, Cidades Invisíveis [Map of Lisbon, Invisible Cities]

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