The project comissioned for L+arte was developed around the self-portrait (c.1900) of the Portuguese artist Aurélia de Souza (from the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis collection).
Aurélia de Souza studied painting in Oporto and Paris. She did several self-portraits, either as herself or as a man or a saint. She used photography as preparatory studies for her paintings - a performative act that is anterior to the paintings -, but they remain secret as very few people seen them. In this series I am interested in an impossible meeting between us, through the idea of reenactment and the use of reproduction. The word fantasy - phantasia - has the same etymological root as phantom and phenomenon: phainesthai.

Phantasia was later in 2007 presented as a photograph series in the 3º Prémio de Pintura Ariane de Rothschild, Antiga Fábrica Mirandela, Lisboa (awarded 1st prize), and was shown on the group exhibition Do séc. XVII ao séc. XXI: além do tempo, dentro do Museu, Curated by Fátima Lambert, at Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto (29 October - 12 December 2009).