As part of BOCA Bienal 2023 Mexican artist Héctor Zamora will be presenting his work "Chimera" (2023) in public spaces in Lisbon and Faro, Portugal, starting this Saturday, September 2.

The action consists of a group of street immigrant vendors selling balloons, scattered in different squares and gardens of both cities. Filled with helium, the balloons in the action take the form of different words that conjure the idea of “chimera”: an unrealizable dream or illusion fabricated by the mind.

“Chimera” makes the invisible visible, paying tribute to the informal economies on which Mexican society largely rests, whose models are replicated by the migrant communities in the Northern countries. This work highlights a segment of the population whose labor force constitutes a pillar of the Portuguese economy, a population that the media and political groups consistently strive to keep invisible.