Exhibition Dreams: Utopias - Gallery of Dreams and Dreamers. Photograph: Albert Andrade

The exhibition Dreams: History, Science and Utopia, recently closed at the Museum of Tomorrow, was more than a temporary exhibition: it was a profound invitation to reflect on the transformative power of dreams in the construction of possible futures.

Curated by writer and neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro, the exhibition explored the dream universe through a multidisciplinary approach, integrating science, art and ancestral knowledge. From the installation "Labyrinth – We Are Descendants of Dreamers", which highlighted the importance of dreams in different cultures, to the "Gallery of Dreams and Great Dreamers", paying homage to figures such as Lélia Gonzalez, Paulo Freire and Martin Luther King, the exhibition highlighted how dreams shape our reality and inspire social transformations. Mainly when bringing new narratives about the act of dreaming.

For me, this exhibition had an even more special meaning. It was the first exhibition I attended at the Museum of Tomorrow after being hired as an Institutional Communication Analyst by idg-Institute of Development and Management. Experiencing this experience made me reflect on how for us non-white LGBTQIAP+ people, the world of dreams is a space where we can fully be who we are, free from the impositions of reality. A space where we can think about other ways of existing in the world, other than those imposed by cisgender-patriarchal-colonial heteronomartivity.

Dreaming is a political act. We, black LGBTQIAP+ people, are the materialization of our ancestors' deepest dreams. Each achievement, each space occupied, is the fruit of dreams that have resisted time and necropolitics. Art, museums and exhibitions play a fundamental role in building collective imaginations that hope for LGBTQIAP+non-white futures, futures where we have the basic right to life!

The Sonhos exhibition also highlighted the importance of art as a tool for expression and healing. In partnership with the Museum of Images of the Unconscious, 18 works by artists such as Adelina Gomes and Fernando Diniz were exhibited, highlighting how art can reveal the depths of the unconscious and contribute to the fight against stereotypes associated with mental health.

Dreaming is what drives me daily as a black Latin American lesbian woman. It is through dreams that I find the strength to face the structures of social oppression and imagine a world where all identities are respected, celebrated and have the right to life! It is the act of dreaming that drives me to break the tyrannies of silence!

The exhibition Dreams: History, Science and Utopia reminds us that dreaming is a right and a necessity. It is a powerful tool of resistance and transformation. May we continue dreaming collectively, building bridges between the present and the futures we desire. May we not allow ourselves to fall into the destructive routine of automating our thoughts/feelings to the point of suffocating our dreams.