As a conceptual artist, Emo de Medeiros often works on non-chronological series of works to which he gets back regularly — which is the case of the “Surtentures”, a series of works on textile he started in 2015. A number of individual works from this series were exhibited around the world, in art biennials, as well as at the Musée des Arts Premiers and Musée de l'Immigration, both in Paris, and in the ground-breaking “Restitution to Revelation” exhibition that took place in Cotonou, featuring some important Beninese Royal Treasures restituted from French museums and contemporary art of Benin.\

“For the Phoenix Shall Rise” were produced with the same technique of the “appliqué” that was used by highly skilled artisans since the 18th century to celebrate the life and military victories of the powerful Kings of Dahomey (with the exception that NFC chips were inserted into the fabric, hiding messages that can be read with the relevant phone application). In these, de Medeiros alludes to the narrative of the Phoenix mythology — as a symbol of the hope and belief in human and technological intelligence to sort humanity’s current main issue: climate change.