O Mundo Imaginário arose from the question: what if girls were invited into spaces of play usually reserved for boys?

Even today, the echoes of colonisation run through social relations, reinforcing gender inequality and shaping everyday life — particularly through the structurally subordinate position imposed on women. While many aspects of women’s lives have changed, fundamental issues such as safety, visibility and participation remain marked by deep asymmetries.

Through play and imagination, children offer a counterpoint to these realities. Across São Tomé, boys are often seen playing with tábuas — handmade wooden boards — in games that express creativity and carve out space for new forms of encounter. These moments of collective play reveal the potential for a renewed social imagination.

O Mundo Imaginário responds to this dynamic by inviting girls into games tradionally reserved for boys. Through shared play and mutual learning, the project frames play as a unifying language — and as a tool for listening, agency and transformation.

Presented at the 10th São Tomé Biennial, À (Re)descoberta de NÓS (Rediscovering Ourselves), the installation brings together two paintings and a tábua crafted by the generation that first introduced this form of play in the village of Santana. During the process, girls took part in the game for the first time. The tábua becomes both an object of cultural resurgence and a symbol of shifting gender dynamics. Together, the works reflect on the colonial past and its lingering presence, while opening space for new imaginaries of relation, participation and shared futures.