In 'The Island', Mónica de Miranda (b. Porto, Portugal) contemplates the complex experiences of Afrodiasporic lives and Europe's colonial past. Using fact and fiction, 'The Island' explores a long trajectory of black presences in Portugal by bringing together intertwined narratives – drawing on African liberation movements, migratory experiences, and identity formations through a black feminist lens. De Miranda deploys the metaphor of the island as a utopian place of isolation, refuge, and escape: a space for collective imaginings that speak to new and old freedoms. The artist considers soil as an organic repository of time and memory, where ancestral and ecological trauma linked to colonial excavations continue to unfold. 'The Island' urges us to develop a more conscious relationship between our bodies, the past and the lands we inhabit – and all they hold – towards possible regenerative futures.