The ‘Inhabited World – Works from the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar’ exhibition was created following an invitation from Anadia Municipal Council to the Atelier-Museu to present Júlio Pomar’s work at the Museu do Vinho Bairrada.

Taking into account the context of this museum, which focuses on the history and winemaking activity of the region, it is necessary to clarify that no attempt was made to directly link the works chosen for the exhibition with the theme of Bacchus. The exhibition recognises that the painter’s work, with its diverse nuances, styles and figurations, celebrates existence, the pleasures of life, an inhabited world: inhabited at times by humans, at others by animals, at others still by strange creatures, or even by all of these at once.

Júlio Pomar builds a territory teeming with action and tension between visibility and illegibility, challenging and proposing new cognitive modes, and repositioning humans in a ‘natural’ context, not because they are perfect but instead because of their inherent contradictions, which also have their place.

In this new context, historic values linked to literary and popular traditions dwell and cohabit, shadows, styles and spaces are revealed and choreographed, the relevance of the textures and materials of artistic creation are emphasised, and narratives, experiences and legends which simultaneously evade yet entice us come together.

These are floaty images which, in this exhibition, inhabit and demonstrate the abundance of existence, in an alluring, provocative reminder of the force of life, and above all, of art.