IPLUSO returned to the Contacto Festival with the exhibition Fantastic Maps, where Illustration students explore narrative, imagination, and visual identity through fictional worlds.
IPLUSO – Polytechnic Institute of Lusofonia marked its presence once again, for the fourth time, at the Festival Contacto in Marvila, on April 11 and 12, this time with an exhibition of speculative maps.
Today, illustration stands as an interdisciplinary field that combines communication, innovation, imagination, creativity, and technology.
The Polytechnic Institute of Lusofonia is proud to have established the first Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration in Portugal, a milestone in national arts education that reinforces illustration as an autonomous field of expression within the visual arts.
The Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration and Drawing aims to prepare students for professional practice while fostering critical thinking and community engagement. For the fourth consecutive year, students from this programme have participated in Festival Contacto, strengthening professional collaboration between institutions.
The exhibition Fantastic Maps presents a selection of works developed in the curricular unit Scenario Design, under the guidance of Professor Susana Pires. In this context, students are challenged to reflect on spatial functionality, conceptual construction, and the visual representation of original narrative universes.
Each map presents a fictional world, highlighting geographical characteristics that support potential narratives. In some cases inspired by medieval cartographic traditions, these imagined places also suggest visions of the future, but above all an openness to fantasy. Students freely explore different graphic languages, integrating iconographic and topographic elements alongside imaginary creatures and characters inhabiting unknown territories. Beyond geography, some works also offer symbolic interpretations, representing psychological states or personal journeys.
Twelve (12) maps were selected for this exhibition, chosen for their graphic diversity. However, many other worlds remain to be discovered at IPLUSO – School of Communication, Innovation and Arts (ECIA).
Illustration
Student Riimar
IMAGINATU
