mariana duarte santos

Slow Song

📍Wittmayergasse 6, 1120 Wien

For this project, Mariana Duarte Santos approaches the theme of Youtopia from a personal and intimate perspective, focusing on small, human moments that could represent an ideal future. For her, utopia is not a distant place but something that exists in fleeting, overlooked experiences.

Her design depicts an aerial view of a couple in bed, sharing a quiet moment of connection – a vision of utopia found in emotional closeness, rest, and the freedom to simply be together without pressure or fear. She aims to evoke a society where people are not consumed by work and stress but have time to nurture relationships, pause, and care. 

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Mariana Duarte Santos
(lisbon, portugual)

Mariana Duarte Santos, born in 1995 in Lisbon, Portugal, attended an arts-focused high school before pursuing a university degree in drawing and printmaking. She has exhibited her work in both group and solo shows across Portugal, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

In 2019, she created her first large-scale outdoor mural, and since then, she has completed over 70 murals throughout Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Denmark, Luxembourg, and Ireland.

Her work is primarily figurative, encompassing painting, drawing, and printmaking, while also drawing inspiration from cinema and literature. In her public art projects, she often explores themes of memory, collective identity, and local stories, frequently incorporating archival photographs as a central element in her murals.