Sensorial Self-Portrait (Portuguese: Autorretrato Sensorial) by Edu Monteiro is a 2009–2014 series of masked self-portraits, developed through self-directed performances. Monteiro calls the project "a personal fiction." Its impulse came from encountering a sensory mask by Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, after which he began constructing his own face coverings and submitting his body and mind to experiences of sensation, fear, and fragility. This method asks whether a face can disclose a subject at all, or whether portraiture turns flesh into an object.
Concealment thus becomes a form of self-analysis rather than simple disguise. Monteiro differentiates his practice from the participatory procedures he associates with Clark and Hélio Oiticica because he remains both mask-maker and participant. The recurring tension between revelation and obstruction examines identity, facial recognition, vulnerability, and the unstable relation between appearance and personhood. In a later co-authored essay, he termed the works "anti-selfies," positioning their noise and discomfort against the reassurance and social belonging often sought through selfies.
The images use frontal, portrait-like compositions in which Monteiro's face is blocked, enlarged, or materially distorted. Plants, peppers, charcoal, cigarettes, stuffed animals, chicken hearts, dry leaves, feathers, bananas, and a cephalopod create hybrids from organic matter and consumer objects. Carefully controlled lighting gives the staged encounters a polished surface, while the obstruction of recognition introduces unease and occasional humor.
The series was shown as nine photographs at Galeria Lunara in Porto Alegre in 2011, then as nine photographs and a video at FotoRio in Rio de Janeiro later that year. Further presentations followed at the Lianzhou Foto Festival and DOC Galeria in 2014, and at Paraty em Foco in 2015.
