Inês Mota was born in Porto in 1995. She is a set designer whose interests include puppetry, light design, illustration and animation cinema.
Recently graduated her Master’s degree in scenography from the École Nationale des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (ENSATT), Lyon, France, as a scholarship holder of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Her final project is entitled "L'immatérialité de la scénographie, entre matière et évocation" (The immateriality of scenography, between matter and suggestion) and deals with what can be understood as scenography. It is a reflection centred on a quest for immateriality that raises ethical questions linked to collaborative work and that uses the theme of the forest as a pretext to talk about it.
Before moving to Lyon in 2019, Inês completed a year's internship in the Department of Props and Sets of Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE), Porto, Portugal, where she was responsible for organising the workshops, classrooms and storage spaces, watching over the props, tools, materials and equipment, as well as supporting and supervising the construction of set elements. In June 2018, as part of this internship, Inês was assistant set designer to Marta Silva in the comic opera "La Donna di Génio Volubile", written by Marcos de Portugal, a co-production between ESMAE's postgraduate course in opera and Teatro Nacional São João, staged by António Durães.
Along her way Inês has also lived in Brescia, Italy, in 2016, where she attended the Libera Accademia di Belle Arti (LABA) in Eramsus during the last semester of her Bachelor's degree in Scenography, granted the same year by ESMAE; and in Leeds, UK, in 2017, for six months of internship with the Red Ladder Theatre Company. Of this period, she highlights her role as assistant set designer to Ali Allen and Charlotte Stanley in the production "The Shed Crew", based on Bernard Hare's book and staged by Rod Dixon in a found alternative space – a warehouse in the outskirts of Leeds.
Professionally, she has collaborated with Alwyne de Dardel and the Compagnie du Kairos, La Jeune Troupe du Théâtre des Îlets II, Claire Boust, GAD – Giselle Academia de Dança, Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora, Funâmbula_Grupo Criativo, Público Reservado, Emílio Gomes e Renata Portas, Clube de Teatro da Escola Básica da Gafanha da Encarnação, coordinated by Madalena Melo. And had the opportunity of seeing her work in Sala de Bolso da ASSéDIO Teatro, Teatro Municipal do Porto – Campo Alegre, Teatro Carlos Alberto, Fábrica das Ideias da Gafanha da Nazaré, Casa da Cultura de Ílhavo, Serralves em Festa (2013, 2019), Prague Quadrennial (2015, 2019).