In the run-up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Prêmio Marcantônio Vilaça award winner Gê Orthof undertook a residency at The Portico and created works responding to its collection and visitors. Enchanted by books and their power to unlock new worlds of potential, Gê transformed the entire gallery space into one extraordinary temporary installation, with cardboard walls and miniature dioramas placing us down among the characters, imagining their stories unfold.

Inspired by the story of Thompson Vitor, a boy in Brazil whose Mother salvaged old books from the streets, allowing her son to study and pass his college entrance exams, Gê's project used discarded and donated books and a number of allusions to other historic "Thompsons" from the library's collection and elsewhere.

Supported by Manchester School of Art, HOME and Plano Cultural.