Private Z(oo)M – Tempo de Bichos is a multifaceted proposal that combines elements of poetry, music and video. VIDEOPHONEMA was the name found to characterize this hybrid vein, which has been traveling as an exhibition of photographs and slam poetry. This proposal arose from the need to archive and document the urban chaos and visual pollution, and to organize them in a creative and contextual manner, in parallel with the theme of animals in the poetry of Arménio Vieira – one of the most emblematic writers of the Lusophone world, and winner of the Camões Prize in 2009. Private Z(oo)M is composed of ten poems by the honoured poet, 500 images of an imaginary zoo, eight sonic mantras and a video.

Mito Elias is a multifaceted artist who seeks ‘poesis mutantis’ in light and sound. Born in the city of Praia, in Santiago in Cape Verde, he studied at Ar.Co in Lisbon between 1989 and 1992. He has been living and working in the diaspora since 1989. Has developed a very unique artistic language, which consists of the research of Creole orality and fables, a symbiotic style between watery, writing and media, which he has dubbed ‘Mare Calamus’. Over the past year the travelling project ‘Private Z(oo)M’, dedicated to the poetry of Arménio Vieira, has been in motion, a hybrid approach that combines elements of writing, video and sound reinforcement, and that inspired the epithet ‘videophonema’. He has been exhibiting regularly since 1983 and his drawings, paintings, written and videotaped work has travelled to many corners of the globe. He is represented in many collections around the world, with particular mention of the following, the World Bank (USA), BNU (Macau), Museu Afro Brazil – Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the Regional Government of Azores.