Monozigotic twins: same but different

From the 2nd of June to the 31st of August 2023, the MHNC-UP will host, in its Core Pole, the exhibition Monozygotic Twins: Same but different, with photos by Cláudia Rocha and scientific coordination by Alexandra Matias.

This exhibition brings us a selection of photographs intended to be the artistic extension and translation, on paper, of the difference in the almost equal duality of monozygotic twins: the power of colour to illustrate genetics; the author’s photography to draw science with art. Consisting of twins of different ages, the photographic series presented seeks to explore the dynamics between siblings and their relationship over time. The portraits show different personalities and physical characteristics that can unite or separate them, depending on family context and life choices. Through the intimate gaze of the camera, the photographs question what it means to "be a twin” and what the sense of "self” is in the relationship between siblings: at first glance, they seem the same, but not everything is as it seems.

This project is born of a collaboration between Alexandra Matias, a gynaecologist and obstetrician with a subspecialty in Fetal Medicine, Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and author of the book Developmental and fetal origins of differences in monozygotic twins: From Genetics to Environmental factors (2020), and photographer Cláudia Rocha, whose work developed in the last ten years has focused on portraits and the search for individual identity.