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- FROM THE EDITOR Almost CARLOS DUARTE We believe. We believe in our artists, we believe in our readers, we believe in what we do. We believe so much in what we do, that a year ago we decided to take Directarts beyond Portugal to the rest of the world. What better way to promote Portuguese talent than to keep good company on newsstands with other international arts magazines; from New York to Tokyo, from Oslo to Cape Town. After all, here in Portugal we already know what great artists we have; it’s the rest of the art world that needs to find out. An ambitious and overwhelming challenge… absolutely. But when the passion and determination are honest, then almost no obstacle is too great. We set out to promote Portuguese art, to connect both fine art and the applied arts. We wanted to give our talent the best possible exposure, by making our design clean and our editorial accessible to everyone. The formula worked. The more we researched the talent available to us, the more infinite the source. It is still surprising how much great art is produced in
this corner of Europe. Our readers recognized this immediately after our first issue, and our artists more then ever counted on our enthusiasm and dedication to promote their talent. What we didn’t count on was the overwhelming and precarious European, in this case the Portuguese, economic challenge that strangled us financially and pulled the rug from under our publishing feet. Sure we could have just gone “online”, but art is emotion, a mixture of the senses, and an art magazine has to be held and we had hoped, collected. To our readers and artists we extend our heartfelt thanks and hope that Directarts in its short life has taken Portuguese culture to new shores and peoples. So we will recede into a media hiatus, for now, to hopefully come back stronger and better. Our readers deserve it. Our artists deserve it even more. Until next time.
- COVER -
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Unlimited Being, 2007 The cover for this issue is by Portuguese painter Duarte Vitória. This artist’s work is an inspirational experiment in capturing an instant in time which transcends into a continuous movement. Vitoria imposes aggressiveness and often a sexual affliction to his work. It is the perfect pose, a distorted look, a detailed destructiveness of the flesh that surrenders completely our capacity to define the proverbial line between the beautiful and the grotesque. The French photographer Denis Rouvre is one of Vitoria’s visual references and our cover represents that connection. Duarte Vitoria is featured in our portfolio section on page 22.
15 de Junho a 15 de Julho
Gil Maia
Constructiones in Monasterio II [
aproximação B]
ÍLHAVO - PORTUGAL WWW.NUNOSACRAMENTO.COM.PT
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- CONTENTS - THE MASTERS -
- EXHIBITION -
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54
Ana Hatherly A secret art
82
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Poet-Artists and Artist-Poets
by Art Critic Maria João Fernandes
- ARTICLE -
- APPLIED ARTS -
Sara Lamúrias Master design mode... by Regina Frank
by Art Critic Maria João Fernandes
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- INTERVIEW -
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60
Manuel Caeiro Painter collector
Júlio Pomar Bringing the energy of painting to life
by Catarina Vilar
by Miguel Matos
by Miguel Matos
- PORTFOLIO -
Ricardo Tércio A friendly freaky hero
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Liliana Alves The metamorphosis of jewellery
- CAMERA -
22
68
Duarte Vitória A palette of flesh and blood
Nuno Cera Camera with a view by Luisa Santos
by Miguel Matos
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Rui Pimenta Around and in to the body
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38
by Catarina Vilar
by Luisa Santos
MUU Hand made
Manuel D’Olivares The poetry of cities by Catarina Vilar
106
- SHOWCASE -
Corque Making history with cork
46
- NEW TALENTS -
Joana Bruno Scientific illustrator
by Miguel Matos
Bela Silva The erudite storyteller
by Catarina Vilar
100
by Catarina Vilar
110
Branca Cuvier Jewellery designer
Maria Rita Pires O Filho de Mil Homens
The Son of a Thousand Men
May - JUNE 2013 Lisbon - Portugal
www.trema-arte.pt
www.mariarita.com
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- CREDITS - EDITORIAL POLICY Directarts is an information medium aimed at a public linked to the Arts, be they professionals in the field or merely interested in the Arts. Directarts is a quarterly magazine guided by the ethical principles of rigour and editorial creativity, free of any ideological, political or economic influences. Directarts respects the constitutional rights and duties of Freedom of Expression and Information. Directarts is committed to providing information of interest to the arts community as a whole, exploring an array of areas within the arts, meeting the expectations of a diverse audience. Directarts complies with the Press
Law and the Editorial policy guide-lines defined by its Management. Directarts applies journalistic ethical principles of accuracy and impartiality in order to respect all opinions and beliefs. Directarts is solely liable before its readers, in a rigorous and transparent relationship, free from political or private interests and/or influences. Directarts values each journalistic piece based exclusively on its artistic merits, and not its possible political, social or economic impact. Directarts follows ethical principles of journalistic rigour, impartiality, honesty and respect for all the artwork and artists it divulges.
Director Carlos Duarte carlosduarte@directartsonline.com
Translations
Editorial Director Raquel Vilhena raquelvilhena@directartsonline.com
www.kennistranslations.com
Production Manager Graça Romano gromano@directartsonline.com Features Editor Catarina Vilar catarinavilar@hotmail.com Contributing Editors Maria João Fernandes mjfernandes.art@gmail.com Miguel Matos migueldematos@gmail.com Regina Frank regina@regina-frank.de Luísa Santos luisa.santos@network.rca.ac.uk Graphic Design Ana Serra me@anaserra.com Production Assistant Joana Figueiredo info@directartsonline.com
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© The title and contents of this publication are registered and the property of Directarts magazine. All rights regarding the printed edition of Directarts and www. directartsonline.com are reserved. Reproduction of any part of Directarts and/or this associated web site or online material without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. All rights reserved.
- THE MASTERS -
PHOTO by C. B. ARAGﾃグ
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A ANA SECRET HATHERLY ART text by ART CRITIC MARIA JOﾃグ FERNANDES
The work and personality of Ana Hatherly (born 1928 city of Porto) have inevitably been associated with the broad movement of experimental poetry that emerged in Portugal in the 1960s with the publication of two magazines (in 1964 and 1966) under the apt title of Poesia Experimental (Experimental Poetry). While producing her pieces, Ana Hatherly also created a reflective discourse, an exegesis of her own work. In 1960, the ostensible interdependence and coexistence between the two languages which made writing seep into her paintings and painting seep into her writings gave way to an autonomous approach to drawing and painting, which nevertheless still reveals the way in which the signs of writing encroach on them. Series of drawings and paintings correspond to each of her books.
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- THE MASTERS -
“I write in order to say what cannot be said.� Ana Hatherly
1. S/Titulo (Untitled), 1971 Drawing Felt tip pen and colored pencils on postcard 13,9 x 8,9 cm
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Mapas da Imaginação e da Memória (Maps from the Imagination and Memory), published in 1973, brings together Hatherly’s work from over a decade. According to Melo e Castro (Portuguese poet), it is a kind of anthology that represents “a repertoire of Ana Hatherly’s visual poetry”. The book includes series of poems that are later developed in other works: O Escritor (The Writer) in 1975, A Reinvenção da Leitura (A Re-invention of the Reading) in 1975 and A Escrita Natural (The Natural Writing) in 1988. From anthropomorphic signs inspired by ancient Eastern and African script to clean, geometric symbols that evoke Western writing, Hatherly “traced the historic evolution of forms of representation,” linking the end to its beginning, going back to the origin and discovering paths in an invented territory. Grids, pontillistic patterns, rapid strokes and random marks on the paper are all traces and fragments of a reality that is unrecognisable to us; which we can merely sense. This is a form of writing that has been won over by gestures, drawn by a hand that has taken on a will of its own and allowed itself to be guided by the subconscious. This subversive and adventurous, seductive spirit thus seizes upon everyday writing and disassembles it, only to remake it by populating it with marks that are completely alien to this world. In O Escritor (The Writer), which dates from the 1960s but was only published in 1975, we see the dramatisation of the author-character, who becomes completely subsumed by script and alphabets. Reinvenção da Leitura (A Re-invention of the Reading) adds theory to the artist’s recurring themes in the poetic and essay works of the writer on the meaning of writing and reading. The blank page, disturbing in its dazzling whiteness, lays itself bare to emptiness and absence – the most radical way of evoking the totality of presence. On it the nocturnal maze-like images
vibrate. Here there are underground trenches, taking us deep beneath the oceans of the writing of the world. Everything that cannot be said is here, illuminated by the image. Hatherly’s poetry and painting and her visual expressiveness have a restless nature, suggesting a subject in search of its own absolute self, or the sense of the absolute within it – its fragmentation, dispersion and rupture are such absolutes. The artist’s playful approach is a sign of optimism and hope, and new writings are always springing forth. In A Escrita Natural (The Natural Writing) we are given the punctuation from a missing text, which exists only at the level of our desire, riven with small tears of ink, evoking the musical sound of the rain within us, heralding a dreamed-up spring. This writing is made up of pared-back forms that appear to unite the world within and the universe outside with the world of forms. Hatherly re-forges the bond that unites words and the things in ancient writings. The conceptual veil provides the backdrop to this scene, but we are already witnessing its fatal eclipse. The poetic work of Ana Hatherly leaves us on the threshold of an encounter with totality. In her painting she also works a kind of alchemy by transforming the dark destruction of old conventions into the red of the work’s consummation and the gold of a dormant and slowly grasped truth. It is in her paintings that the artist truly expresses the ineffable, through gestures and the mysterious feat of bringing together colour, light, marks, lines, forms and thought.
ANA HATHERLY
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2. O mar que se quebra (The sea that breaks), 1998 Drawing Indian Ink on Paper 15 x 21 cm
3. Pesquisa textual (Textual research), 1965 Drawing Felt tip pen, graphite pencil and gouache on paper 30,7 x 21,7 cm
Painting as Writing and Writing as Painting The drawings and paintings of Hatherly have taken a path that runs parallel to that of her visual poetry, and they meet at many points. She creates a reality based on the world within – vertiginous, restless and beset with eddies that seem to suck us into the endless cycles of time, and mazes that make space murky and undecipherable. Does this interior reality, fragmented, fragile and explosive as it is, both controllable and uncontrollable, mysteriously represent the hidden energies of the cosmos, or is it the cosmos that inspires these involuntary forms that emerge from the repertoire of known signs, and thus come to resemble abysses, clearings, skies, oceans, eddies and interior spaces? Through spontaneous gestures, reason abandons its dominion over language and gives way to the senses, to vision and dreams, and to a loving contact with the world, as though reuniting man once again with his cosmos. This unity is nothing more than suggested fragility, an indistinct mumbling, like a hint of music after a storm, heralding the reunion with the original image of writing, with its concrete existence. This is not a materiality that has been stripped of its soul, of a meaning, but a materiality that is imbued with all the primordial magic of the senses. These are ideograms born of fascination, the first letters with which we might reinvent the alphabet of our being. Indeed, what we are dealing with is one and the very same language, arising from the osmosis between writing and painting. In some cases the greater illegibility, the informal writing and a preference for elements of visual language such as colour, shape and composition naturally lead us to consider it as a more pictorial aspect of the artist’s work. A 1974 exhibition featured sparse, geometrical shapes, evoking a “structural alphabet”, sitting alongside small, anthropomorphic, stylised signs, hinting at the artist’s interest in pictographical writings, inserted into a vibrant chromatic space. Silent script-like elements cross the
gateway into an inner fire, aquatic forests made up of dense enigmas suddenly penetrated by light. The world rediscovers its graphic language, untranslatable through any medium other than imagery. This interior world does not reflect the outside but rather feeds off it, in an exchange of energies and images that reveal themselves to be the intimate essence of language, and of the cosmos itself. In other compositions there is a sparing use of black and white, and lines and organic forms are included without any apparent logic, contrasting with the absolute blackness of the background, the shading of the contrasting black and white areas, and the dazzling whiteness of the blank area that is at the core of these spaces, or “interior landscapes”, which accentuate the piece’s intimate and intriguing nature. Ana Hatherly in black and white Ana Hatherly’s “black and white” series, consisting of rapid scribbling without any legible content, was shown at an exhibition in 1997 and features the interesting dialogue between writing and painting, and the shape and spirit of the letter that runs through all of her work. The artist draws inspiration from primitive writing, although this is not always obvious. In her foreword to the exhibition, she writes that she is seeking a way of exploring dialogue between all of the arts, symbolised by Western writing “as a creative paradigm of our culture”. In this case her graphics evoke Western writing more explicitly, but throughout her work the relationship with ancient Chinese script is always present, giving the image an anthropomorphic link with the forms in the world and the esoteric and mystical nature of writing. Above all, writing is a discursive way of expressing the unsayable, performing an apparent contradiction, as its original function is to communicate, to say, while
ANA HATHERLY
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- THE MASTERS -
4. S/Titulo (Untitled), 1974 Drawing Varnish and gouache on paper 14 x 8,9 cm
5. A romĂŁ (Pomegranate) Drawing Felt tip pen on postcard 14 x 8,9 cm
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its visual and original form aligned graphics signs with icons and sacred images. In her forest of obscure, stammering signals, the meaning of the writing is not the only element that undergoes interrogation. Beyond representing a particular meaning she reconfigures it, giving a new meaning to current culture, injecting the irrational into the dictatorship of reason that has seen its empire waver in our time, helped by the dialogue with the East. The black stands for the
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memory of the dream-continents of the spirit, drawing a new synthesis against the glaring whiteness of the background and thus pointing the way to new forms of thought and sensibility, or new cultural directions. Ana Hatherly’s drawings and paintings have evolved along the same lines as her visual poetry, from the way in which they reference pictographical writing to the creation of structural geometric or organic alphabets,
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6. S/Titulo (Untitled), 1972 Drawing Indian Ink on paper 14,9 x 10,5 cm
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their return to Western scripts and the way in which they break them down into calligrams. These fall apart and lose their formality, going so far as to transform into pure marks that suggest gestures and rhythms devoid of any meaning, seeking instead to convey a different sense, closer to music or silence. In either case, the work involves an examination of writing as form, as matter and as bearer of a meaning that transcends it. The artist recreates an experience of
7. Metáfora da “mão inteligente” (“Intelligent hand” metaphor), 1975 Drawing Indian Ink on paper 15,9 x 22,1 cm
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totality through the experience of wondrous signs, the spectacle of writing, the abandonment of accepted meaning and the return to the original sense. This is what is offered to us, as readers, to seek out and invent for ourselves. We are invited to take part in the same adventure, the poetic quest of the soul infinitely conjuring new forms.
ANA HATHERLY
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- ARTICLE -
Júlio Bringing the energy of painting to life text by MIGUEL MATOS
Pomar
Júlio Pomar is one of the most popular figures in Portuguese painting.
1. Júlio Pomar in his Studio courtyard
PHOTO by Luísa Ferreira
Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1926, he has finally seen the establishment of the Atelier-Museu da Fundação Júlio Pomar (Foundation Júlio Pomar) in his home town, while also holding an exhibition of his paintings at Galeria 111 – which has represented him since 1969 – and another at the Ratton Gallery both in Lisbon. Is he living proof that age is no barrier to vitality? What is his secret – optimism? Throughout his career, with a few isolated exceptions, Júlio Pomar has concentrated his output on two fundamental pillars: figurative and narrative art. Having undergone an initial neorealist phase before moving on to gesturalism and expressionism, the painter has gained widespread recognition in Portugal and abroad. His links with the neorealist movement go deep, but relate to a short period in his career. Nevertheless, he is behind a number of key works in this artistic movement, such as the paintings Gadanheiro (1945) and Almoço do Trolha (1946–50). Although he is considered to be the main architect of neorealism within Portuguese visual arts, it is worth noting that he also worked as a journalist and prolific art critic for the publications A Tarde, Mundo Literário, Vértice, Seara Nova and Horizonte, all within a very short period. “For
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some time I was put into that pigeonhole for convenience, and sometimes this period is overemphasised. Today this is not the case. And I don’t want to remain associated with neorealism forever,” he says. In the 1960s Pomar settled in Paris and absorbed some of the fervour for the visual avant-garde that was sweeping the bustling city at the time. His career has retained its international dimension to this day, largely due to the contacts that he made with galleries and collectors during those years. Ever since, the female body, sexuality, working life, animals and social criticism have served as the key themes behind much of the artist’s work. On a technical level, Pomar wields his brush in an energetic and highly dynamic way, with a rapid movement, and incorporates collage and cut-out techniques. During his time in Paris, Pomar was greatly influenced by the work of masters such as Ingres and Matisse: “At a certain point I began to feel that there was a lack of structure on my canvas,” he recounts. “I felt that the composition was becoming diluted from all angles, and I needed to seize hold of it. I was saved by the same two painters: Ingres and Matisse. In the work of Ingres the whole surface of the canvas is structured, and his figures appear almost like cut-outs. I was also interested in Matisse’s gouaches découpés. Studying these works would determine the groundwork for my use of colour, combined with the rigorous style of Ingres.
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2. Navio negreiro (Slaveship), 2005-2012 Acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas hinged 146 x 230 cm Courtesy Gallery 111
3. Double self-portrait, 2012 Acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas 115 x 146 cm Courtesy Gallery 111
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- ARTICLE -
I went on to paint canvases that featured block colours and defined shapes for a long time.” Around this time Pomar began to paint in a cut-out style, one example of which is his interpretation of The Turkish Bath by Ingres. Yet Pomar’s restless spirit meant that he was never destined to stop there, and he ultimately returned to a more “painterly” style of painting. The paintings of Júlio Pomar are invariably imbued with a spiky sense of humour and are often drawn from the artist’s personal sphere, which he projects onto the world: women, painters, writers, poets, politics, society, history and animals as metaphors for human behaviour. Many of his works are dedicated to writers, with illustrations or works paying homage to figures from Fernando Pessoa to Edgar Allan Poe. Another important theme that runs through his work is the animal kingdom, including tigers and monkeys. These are used as ways of depicting human behaviour, and often function as self-portraits. The art critic Bernardo Pinto de Almeida describes the style of Júlio Pomar as a kind of expressionism that “does not express any kind of distress (...); rather, his work invents another language in which expression is put to work only to convey a sense of utter joy about the world.”
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The painter’s intense commitment to his art has finally seen a project on which he has been working for more than a decade, come to fruition in the form of the AtelierMuseu Júlio Pomar. On the day of his 87th birthday the space in Lisbon where, beginning April, his paintings will be seen by visitors from all over the world was finally unveiled to the public. Moreover, this space, which belongs to the Júlio Pomar Foundation and is fully funded by the City of Lisbon, is located on the very street in which the artist lives, the Rua do Vale. This will house works donated to the Foundation by the painter, as part of a project conceived and implemented by the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, at a cost of €900,000. The collection is made up of almost 400 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. The venue’s programme
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includes exhibitions and events held in conjunction with museums, universities and other institutions. Júlio Pomar could have stopped with the opening of his own studio-museum, but he also exhibits at the Galeria 111 in Lisbon, with an exhibition of recent paintings entitled Atirar a Albarda ao Ar, another of his political commentaries on the situation of profound crisis that his country is experiencing. Some of the paintings within this exhibition feature donkeys (another animal in his menagerie), which act as a metaphor for a people who should refuse to obey the will of those who are in command. The exhibition was previously shown at the Cooperativa Árvore in Porto, as part of the 2012 Casino da Póvoa Arts Prize. And as if there were not enough interest
surrounding the artist’s work, the “year of Pomar” has been further enhanced by a series of ceramic works currently being shown at the Galeria Ratton. At the heart of the exhibition is Pomar’s Figuras de Convite. These are tiles that hark back to an eighteenth century tradition, when life-size “invitation figures” of servants, soldiers and ladies were painted onto tiles and placed at the entrances to Portuguese palaces and manors, in a technique that brought together architecture and the art of painting. In addition, the exhibition includes some small three-dimensional pieces, ceramic sculptures created as part of a collaboration between the Galeria Ratton and Faianças Artísticas Bordallo Pinheiro, which once again feature plenty of humour and Pomar’s bizarre animals. 2013 is definitely the year of Pomar in Lisbon.
4. Gata com sapato verde (Cat with green shoe), 2004 Tile panel, polychrome porcelain Courtesy Gallery 111 5. Júlio Pomar Studio-Museum 6. Caçador – Figura de convite (Hunter-Ivitational figure),1996 Polichrome porcelain. Panel cut Courtesy Ratton Gallery
PHOTO by Luísa Ferreira
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JÚLIO POMAR
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- PORTFOLIO -
A PALETTE OF FLESH DUARTE VITÓRIA BLOOD
AND text by MIGUEL MATOS
www.DUARTEVITORIA.com
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1. Manifest, 2007 Oil on canvas 140 x 150 cm
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“I see the human body as the biggest challenge for a visual artist,” he says. “From the body I gain access to the visceral emotional state of the human being, every part of the body acting like an access code for me to tap into the vastness of the emotional palette.” Some of us strive to break free of our animal and carnal side, yet we are fully aware that such efforts are in vain. Aware that we will never succeed in ceasing to be flesh and blood we keep on trying. In our desperate efforts to distance ourselves from our carnality, we might look upon the paintings of Duarte Vitória and notice that he is proposing a movement in precisely the opposite direction. His subjects border on the grotesque, and he paints images of flesh without any reservations or qualms. “I see the human body as the biggest challenge for a visual artist,” he says. “From the body I gain access to the visceral emotional state of the human being, every part of the body acting like an access code for me to tap into the vastness of the emotional palette.” Looking at the artist’s earliest works, we see that his technique has been maintained, and that his visual approach has not deviated from that of his initial pieces. Now, however, he has moved from depicting anonymous bodies and faces to those of famous figures from show business. In doing so, he sets up a discourse about the ephemeral, transient and perishable nature of fame and flesh. “The large-scale faces staring out at us seem to take us in and exist among us as though they are entitled to do so, affirming the ephemeral, buffeted state of being human,” says Valter Hugo Mãe (Portuguese writer) about the work of Duarte Vitória. “In their strange beauty is a latent frenzy, a clear and courageous attempt to face up to degradation and all kinds of conditionality. They seem to put themselves on display like the cast of a film, framed as though for an identity card picture that opens onto the action seen in the other images.” Duarte Vitória moves from a discourse on the most visceral elements of the body to interpretations of
2. Aware, 2007 Oil on canvas 140 x 150 cm
3. Madness, 2011 Oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm
famous photographs of pop culture icons such as the singers Ke$ha (recreating a V magazine cover) and Björk (based on the cover of the album Homogenic), or the actress Natalie Portman (using an image from the film Black Swan). These paintings almost literally remake the original image, adding textures with neoExpressionist brushstrokes that set them apart from mere pastiche. Duarte Vitória (Born in Penafiel, Portugal, 1973) is an emerging artist who has forged a steady path through the Portuguese art scene. He recently exhibited a series of large-scale paintings in the Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam. However, the impact of his work is not solely down to their size; the painter has a unique technique that imbues his subjects with a sense of energy and a certain organic quality. His paintings are based not on concepts or theories, but rather seek to make an emotional impact on the viewer. To this end, he also explores the emotions connected with celebrity figures “with the aim of gradually deconstructing the icons that these portraits represent, in an effort to reveal the frailty that they hide within,” he explains. “I try to expose the human side of these icons by showing their flesh and blood, which represent human vulnerability.” Duarte Vitória is not being disingenuous by portraying Marilyn Monroe covered in blood, looking as though she has been the victim of a car accident, while still remaining beautiful and glamorous. Instead, he incorporates decades of myths into his work and manipulates them in such a way as to make it impossible for the viewer to remain indifferent to his pieces. By reworking a portrait of Portuguese “Fado” legend Amália Rodrigues along the same lines, he is painting a whole country and denouncing its carnality and fragility as a living yet perishable being. Once again, his discourse uses something ethereal to highlight the ephemeral. Other, more contemporary pop culture icons who have undergone similar treatment include the actors Vincent Cassel, Elijah Wood and Kirsten Dunst, their images presumably torn from the pages of magazines. Is this a neo-expressionist form of Pop Art? With their focus on
DUARTE VITÓRIA
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4. O grito (Shout), 2004 Oil on canvas 160 x 160 cm 5. Underground, 2005 Oil on canvas 150 x 150 cm 6. Polarity, 2007 Oil on canvas 170 x 200 cm 7. Hands touch, 2011 Oil on canvas 160 x 200 cm
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hand gestures, involuntary movements of the body, skin blemishes and expressions of the eyes, it is as though every square centimetre of the artist’s canvases cries out, twitching with pain. None of his portraits show their subjects at rest. In this respect – and in his colour palette – his work differs from that of Lucien Freud, who normally painted bodies in a state of repose.
In addition to the exhibition in Amsterdam, the Witzenhausen Gallery is currently showing Duarte Vitória’s work in New York. The painter has also recently acquired greater international renown within the United States due to his presence at the Art Miami Fair last December, when his work was displayed at Context Art Miami, a venue for emerging artists. “I was
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“From the body I gain access to the visceral emotional state of the human being, every part of the body acting like an access code for me to tap into the vastness of the emotional palette.” DUARTE VITÓRIA
- PORTFOLIO -
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“I try to expose the human side of these icons by showing their flesh and blood, which represent human vulnerability.” 14.
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8. Pride, 2012 Oil on canvas 150 x 140 cm 9. Icon MM, 2010 Oil on canvas 175 x 150 cm
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very proud to see my pieces exhibited alongside those of emerging artists whom I saw as references during my university studies and later as a professional artist, such as Kent Williams, Philippe Pasqua and the veteran Chuck Close,” he admits. Duarte Vitória always paints movements, even though they may be very subtle indeed. However, his primary focus is on painting states of inner turmoil: “My concept
is focused on getting closer to the essence of what it is to be human, so I make an effort to get rid of anything that is blocking me from this state. I want to rip away masks, debunk delusions, and destroy everything that stands between my essence and the essence of the other. I want to immerse myself in the dual nature of being human. Our vulnerability can also be our strength. By shocking viewers with my works, I intend to give them this awareness of themselves.”
DUARTE VITÓRIA
- PORTFOLIO -
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i u P R i m y d
he to t Bo
1. From the Birthday suit series, 2012 by Rui Pimenta and Ricardo Quaresma
nd nd a I n
A r a t o n u e
PHOTO by MALGORZATA PAWLIKOWSKA
text by MIGUEL MATOS
One of the issues that have most preoccupied Western society for millennia is the dichotomy between the body and the mind.
WWW.RUIPIMENTA.COM
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- PORTFOLIO -
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This has formed the foundation for much of the work of Rui Pimenta (born in Lisbon, 1968), which has focused on references to cellular biology and the body in terms of both flesh and spirit, interior and exterior. Pimenta is fascinated by the insides of the human body and its minute workings. He looks at what lies within and applies his art to this in order to highlight the falsehoods and truths that the body seems to speak through its external appearance. Inside, we are all more or less the same, but these very internal components remain a mystery to us and operate outside our control. Although without the same ease or frequency that we manipulate the exterior of the body, we can also see or manipulate the microscopic parts of our bodies, they are the elements that ultimately give us away and dominate our being. The idea that underlies all of Pimenta’s work is that “the insides of the body never lie”. Throughout time, an artificial distinction has been made between the internal and external dimensions of the
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human body. Everything is essentially interconnected, making every one of us a small cosmos of mysteries, in spite of all the scientific discoveries, drugs and surgeries that give us a semblance of control. “My interest with the inside of the body had become a metaphor for something universal and true, it also encapsulated the idea that there was a whole universe inside each of us,” says Pimenta. With an academic background in philosophy, the artist has long been interested in philosophers who focus on bridging the split between the body and the mind. He too believes this split is a destructive way of thinking, and that imagining such a dichotomy between the body and mind can only end badly, and even result in self-destruction. Pimenta sees something magical in depicting the human body at a microscopic level. Pimenta’s works on plexiglass, which are reminiscent of cells and other organic components, follow this line of thinking. The artist describes the way in which they began: “I once consulted a naturopath who examined my blood under a very powerful microscope, using a
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technique called dark field projection. In this one drop of blood I saw my red and white blood cells floating against a black background. It looked like an infinite starry sky. I was fascinated by this experience and thought about doing something similar as an artist – trying to capture this infinite quality that exists inside each one of us”. His subsequent work was heavily influenced by that microscopic view, using the language of organisms and cells to communicate something that is simultaneously physical and spiritual, cellular and celestial. “We can only reach the spirit by going through the body, and it’s through our eyes that we see the heavens,” stresses Pimenta. This reasoning is greatly influenced by the thinking of the French philosopher Blaise Pascal in particular. The artist argues that “God is not something beyond us; He is within us.” The works that stem from such theological and philosophical musings incorporate light as an integral and transforming element of the materials used. Like
RUI PIMENTA
“My interest in the inside of the body has become like a metaphor for something universal and true, and it also encapsulates the idea that there is a whole universe inside each of us...” 2. History continues to begin, 2009 Bee’s wax, resin, latex, ink & oil on plexiglass with LEDs 66 x 66 cm 3. The soul of the matter, 2009 Resin, latex & ink on plexiglass with LEDs 43 x 71 x 10 cm
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microscope slides, these pieces are often illuminated in lightboxes. “I am interested in light and its use in medical technology, such as in radiography and MRI’s, which reveals what is going on inside the body, but also due to the spiritual quality that light seems to convey,” he explains. Some of these pieces do not contain their own source of light, but incorporate transparent materials, so that light can pass through them and throw shadows. Yet there came a time when these works proved insufficient to convey Pimenta’s aesthetic and philosophical concerns: “I reached a point at which I felt this work had become a lie. This type of work was motivated by the idea selfanalysis, of finding a kind of interior illumination. However, I had reached a point in my life when I felt that I had not attained that kind of enlightenment. If anything, I thought that the errors that I had made, and the frustration and doubts that I was experiencing, would dissipate over time. But this is not the case. Illumination and clarity are more about understanding that everything is often far murkier than it is clear.”
Moving on to working with latex, Pimenta’s work became messier and more visceral, focusing on the fleshy physicality of the body. “The body is the one thing that always goes on telling the truth. I think that I was deluding myself by trying to find a version of God through my pieces inspired by cells. My work with latex is much more concerned with the here and now of our bodies.” Although they are very different, these new latex pieces, which form a series going back to 2010, are reminiscent of his earlier works in terms of their desire to understand the spirit through the body. At the same time, they highlight the “messiness” of the flesh. The body has secrets to disclose, and dealing with it requires persistence. Like the human body, latex is an organic material that degrades over time. As a result, Pimenta’s current work necessarily undergoes the same unpredictable transformations. This gradual degradation brings an element of performance to the pieces that use latex;
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4. From the birthday suit series, 2012 by Rui Pimenta and Ricardo Quaresma 5. Exhibitionism, Â 2009 Resin, latex & ink on plexiglass with rotating motors 152 x 117 cm 6. Detail from image 5.
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they are essentially perishable, and as such their existence is similar to that of the body. Ultimately all art degrades over time, but in this case degradation is an intrinsic part of the work’s discourse. Decay and decomposition are factors which bring the pieces closer to the human body. Pimenta works with liquid latex, to which he applies pigments in order to give the material the appearance of skin and flesh. His techniques are in part influenced by the methods used in some of the
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works by the German/American artist Eva Hesse in the 1960’s. He superimposes layers of material and shapes the pieces in such a way as to emphasise the surface, while always hinting at the mystery hidden beneath. This gives the impression that something alive and significant might emerge from inside one of these works.
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Pimenta is currently tackling a new challenge in collaboration with the photographer Ricardo Quaresma, called “Birthday Suit”. This consists of a suit made completely of latex and Japanese paper that looks like skin. The artist hides within this skin, while at the same time revealing his nakedness both in the interior and exterior urban settings of Lisbon. “Some of these locations have a particular significance for me, while others are historically important. This is a photography and performance project, carried out in public. I feel
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7. Visceral, Viscera (detail), 2012 Latex and acrylic pigment 8. Something comes (installation), 2012 Latex and acrylic pigment 9. Through a glass darkly (series of three installation), 2012 Latex, acrylic pigment in plexiglass 10. Revelation, 2011 Latex and human hair 120 x 186 cm
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naked, exposed and covered up all at once, and my movements are limited, which gives me a feeling of vulnerability. Yet at the same time by being ‘disguised’ I feel empowered.” Pimenta was born in Lisbon but grew up far away, on another continent. Nevertheless, he feels a strong connection with Portugal, and with Lisbon in particular. Having grown up, studied and built a life for
himself in Toronto, Canada, his return to Lisbon to carry out this performance represents a return to his place of birth, where he nevertheless still feels like an outsider. Being that as it may and as proof in the development of Pimenta’s career up until now, more than ever his work finds a precarious and unstable intimacy within his skin and its social exterior.
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bela silva THE ERUDITE STORYTELLER
PHOTO by Fien Muller
text by LUĂ?SA SANTOS
It would be difficult to imagine Bela Silva in the same way most contemporary artists today carry themselves, with all the iParaphernalia, from the iPod, iPhone to iPad and the like. We can, on the other hand, quite easily picture her in her old family home, immersed in old photographs, newspapers, magazine, and stories to which she was and is witness.
www.belasilva.com
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1. Lisboa (Lisbon), 2012 Gres
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“Silva lives intensely and her work mirrors that multiplicity of stories of someone who experiences the eagerness to discover the new and the need to go back to her roots from time to time.� 2. Encontros (Meetings), 2009 Oil on canvas
3. Museu (Museum), 2013 Gouache on paper
The way Silva describes her professional path is like a scripted timeline where one life event naturally happens after the other. Bela Silva began by initially enrolling in a painting program at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon in Portugal, where she eventually decided to switch from painting and try her hand at clay sculpture. Always willing to broaden her horizons, Silva then took the opportunity to study abroad with the Erasmus program which then led her to take an archeology course in Greece. Back in Lisbon, Silva went on to experimenting with ceramics at Ar.Co school, where her curiosity to explore and experiment with the materials brought her to the attention of one of her instructors. He suggested that she enroll and continue her academic training at the Chicago Art Institute and take a Masters in Ceramic Arts where she was encouraged to explore her Portuguese heritage in tile painting.
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Upon her return to Lisbon she was invited to work with the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (National Tile Museum). Paulo Henriques, the director of the museum at the time, saw her work and invited her for her first solo exhibition at the museum, Antes do Mar, as Águas – 1999, (Before the Sea, the Waters) inspired by the flow of rivers and the sea along with their inhabitants.
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Tile work is not commonly seen as a form of contemporary art but the work of Bela Silva explores different media and scales and co-exists with different disciplines such as sculpture, painting, ceramics, illustration, and drawing, which are, to her, the basis of all her work. Paulo Henriques describes her work as “an erudite and ironic questioning of ceramic techniques, typologies and European iconographies, this process refuses anonymity and consensus: hence the Museu Nacional do Azulejo showcases it as one possibility of authorial work.” (Bela Silva, exhibition catalogue, Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1999).
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4. Esfera Anilar (Anilar Ball), 2012 Gres 5. Anxious Kiss, 2010 Stoneware 95 x 90 x 33 cm 6. Oriente (East), 2010 Gres 7. Cobalto (Cobalt), 2011 Gres 8. Sputnik, 2010 Gres
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The river, the sea and their inhabitants are characters in some of the works of Bela Silva. The sea was the theme for her first solo show at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, in Lisbon, in 1999. More than ten years after, between November 2012 and February 2013, Silva goes back to this imaginary. The artist is very clear when speaking about themes and her choices. To her, an artist is a creative being and it is impossible to separate her work from life. The themes depend on the conditions she is experiencing at the moment. In the exhibition About the Table (2012 – 2013) at Galerie Valerie Traan, in Antwerp, Belgium Silva worked with the artist Benoît van Innis with the theme of the “table”. Bela Silva describes the exhibition as “a story of a table that travelled to Brussels”. It all began with the curiosity that Benoît van Innis showed in a Portuguese table that was sitting in the family home of Bela Silva. A table full of stories, throughout different generations. Having that as an inspiration, Silva created several food pieces that are remindful of Portuguese traditions, in
BELA SILVA
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9. Alvalade subway station, 2004 10. Corals, 2011 Porcelain
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vibrant yellows, blues, greens and a sense of humor that characterizes the work of Silva. In this exhibition, small and medium scales co-habit, which is another interesting characteristic of the work of Bela Silva. The artist moves skillfully between the different scales and mediums. Having the idea drawn out as starting point, she then moves on to tiles, ceramics, sculpture or painting. “The functional side of the objects also interests me”, says Bela Silva. That is visible in her small-scale work with her experimentation with mugs and knifes. At the moment, the artist is working on a set of forty knifes with the handles in porcelain, which I could easily picture on a dining table. The pieces of Silva have this simplicity that makes one want to collect them and be part of their stories. It is difficult to say that Bela Silva follows a specific theme. Silva lives intensely and her work mirrors that multiplicity of stories of someone who experiences the eagerness to discover the new and the need to go back to her roots from time to time. In 2009, she made a
series of works inspired by the hunt. “During a visit to the Altes Museum in Munich, I was captivated by the enormous hunting canvases depicting furious dogs with their fixed protruding eyes and ferocious snarls. The apparent victim in the painting also tries to show what nature has endowed it, in a fight with who has more teeth. In other paintings closed mouth dogs looking closely at pheasants sniffing at their dinner, or simply admiring the beautiful coloured plumage; I prefer the latter option, mush more tranquil. Some of these paintings hang in palaces and castles, commissioned by kings and now appear on Rua do Alecrim, near the Tagus river, far from the woods.” (Bela Silva, “Stag night”, exhibition guide, Alecrim50 Gallery, 2009). Looking at Bela Silva’s work is comparable to listening to a storyteller. We perceive history – partly documented and partly told – from the origins of the universe and the evolution of humankind as well as with stories, the ones we participated in and the ones we are told. This storytelling is possibly why her work caught the attention of Sanchez Jorge, the architect of the Alvalade Metro Station, in Lisbon, when he invited her to produce a tile mural for the renovation of the
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station in 2007. These panels of hand painted tiles spreads along 300m2. With the themes of women, animals and games of seduction, Silva was inspired by her Portuguese traditions and chose a traditional story, very common in early school books, that reads “o macaco do rabo cortado, que do rabo fez navalha, da navalha fez sardinha…” (the monkey with his cut tail, with the tail he made a razor, with the razor he made a sardine…). In one of the panels, the monkey appears gazing at the razor and the sardine. In another panel, the theme of nighttime is symbolized by an owl. One of the largest panels depicts young girls playing belle époque.
nostalgic character of the traditions. She turns the immaterial into the material, pulling the past into the present. At first sight, we might wonder why such diverse and eclectic imagery appears in her work. However, Bela Silva’s approach is anything but random; it is about the same selective, personal choices that are made in creating a diary. Her work portrays life as an assemblage of moments, a look at history through a series of personalized stories.
By reinterpreting traditional stories Bela Silva transforms the original. Her distinctive approach to drawing reveals a very personal interpretation, enhancing the
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BELA SILVA
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MANUEL the poetry of cities
D’OLIVARES text by CATARINA VILAR
Manuel d’Olivares is an urban poet. As he wields his paintbrush, his inspiration comes from the chaos exuded by intensely cosmopolitan places. He creates visual poems replete with emotions. In his work, street art meets the gallery.
www.dolivares.com
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1. Reencontres (Meetings), 2012 Acrylic and spray on canvas glued on aluminum 31 x 120 x 51 cm
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“The message of my work essentially boils down to discovering the poetry of cities”. Urban environments, people, experiences, expectations, dreams and the traces left by all of these; large cities and their walls, pavements, discernible urban surfaces and the way in which they change over time – these are the main sources of inspiration for the work of D’Olivares, a Portuguese artist who has long been shouting his vision to the world. His works are like the diary entries of an anonymous people. “They are like the records of those who have gazed upon an urban scene at a particular instant, and held it within their memory”, he explains. His painted simulation of overlapping, pasted posters that have been torn by time and passers-by is “a genuine witness to the passage of time, as they act as a record of life. They are the anonymous vestiges of moments that have occurred on the streets and the people who have passed along them; the traces of paths travelled, dreams, disappointments, escapes, meetings and partings.”
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His work discloses a play of mirrors, a game between which is seen and what remains hidden. By mimicking torn posters and the surfaces of city walls in his paintings, he draws attention to the way in which we often do not really see or give due importance to our surroundings. “Such urban surfaces have great visual beauty and are changing constantly, without warning, in an overlapping of past and present. They are packed with images that are full of meaning and words that, though seldom read, impose themselves on our gaze while also going unnoticed.” Anyone may conjure up stories or even create poetry from this confusing overlapping of letters, of parts of words. “The message of my work essentially boils down to discovering the poetry of cities,” says D’Olivares. Cosmopolitan life fascinates him, yet at the same time he likes to break free from the concrete jungle. He feels the call of the fresh country air, but he finds that he cannot be away from the turmoil and confusion of the urban tumult for long. His works are like tattoos: “they replicate areas of walls, which are like tattooed urban surfaces”.
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2. Wal...k, 2009 Acrylic and spray on canvas 130 x 97 cm 3. ..., 2010 Acrylic on wood 25 x 25 x 25 cm 4. Wo..., 2010 Acrylic on wood 25 x 25 x 25 cm
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MANUEL D’OLIVARES
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5. Sobremesas dançantes (Dancing desserts), 2012 Based on “ E.L.A (lice) and she (queen of roses)” story, by Storytailors Acrylic on wood and mineral slurry 38 x 27 x 25 cm 6. Feitiço (Hex), 2012 Based on “Narke, the story of a dress”, by Strorytailors Acrylic and synthetic gold leaf on mineral slurry and canvas 14 x 37 x 30 cm 7. Brouillards (Fog), 2009 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm 8. 2F 6:40, 2009 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 60 cm 5.
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One of his principal references is the Italian artist Mimmo Rotella, and he greatly admires the work of the French artist Louise Bourgeois. He spends much of his time in Paris, and divides himself between France, Spain and Portugal. He relies on a well organised schedule in order to work out where he is going to be at any given moment. Much of his time in spent in airports, but these periods are far from boring. “I use the hours spent in airports and the journeys themselves to sort out my paperwork, plan my work and dream up projects and even individual pieces.” The temporary criss-crossing of people with such different backgrounds and experiences serves as a source of inspiration for the artist. He always has a suitcase packed, so that he simply needs to gather his paintbrushes, a few canvases and his inseparable cat, and he is ready to part again. Return to the past Ever since he was little, D’Olivares has felt greatly drawn to everything related to the arts. When he was 12 years old he set up his first studio in an unoccupied part of his family home. There he devised various pieces and made attempts at plaster and wire sculptures. In 1988 he took part in a painting competition for the first time, on the theme of the Portuguese Discoveries, and
received an honourable mention. From that point on, he began to believe that he could do something in the field of visual arts. At the age of 14 he was given an oil painting kit and an easel, and over the days that followed he created his first painting. “At that time we were living in a house beside the sea, and I put together a setting like something by an 18th-century painter: an easel with a small sunshade. From there I painted a little landscape of rocks and waves. Many years later I incorporated part of that landscape into my works, although I painted it from memory, as it was more than 3,000 kilometres away.” D’Olivares has moved house countless times throughout his life, evoking feelings that he has channelled into his works: transience, detachment, a sense of discovery and the way in which past moments become frozen in time. The silkscreen piece I’ve Been Here, produced by the Centro Português de Serigrafia, was awarded the grand prix at the 2012 Papies Awards. “Any kind of recognition, whether from experts, the press or even the public, helps to boost my energy and allows me to press on with my work. The best kind of prize is one that translates into motivation to continue working.” In 2012 D’Olivares held an exhibition entitled Instants Volés at the New heArt CitY Gallery in Paris, and presen-
MANUEL D’OLIVARES
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ted a music and painting project called Meteorologia para Piano – Duplicidade e Cumplicidade together with the pianist Miran Devetak at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània in Barcelona. One of his most recent projects consists of silkscreenprinted painting-sculptures for the Centro Português de Serigrafia. He has also worked on a series of wallpapers for Grafikis, while another challenge has been to create large-scale sculptures based on the aforementioned painting-sculptures, but with the introduction of metallic elements. And it doesn’t stop there: “I want to create new works and sculptures like those that I did for the Dreaming... afterReading! exhibition at the Storytailors space in Lisbon in 2012, which will be presented in Barcelona and Paris.” The creative process Each piece is preconceived in the artist’s mind before he starts work. Sometimes he refers back to sketches and notes, and he makes tweaks as he goes along. He tries to ensure that all of his pieces, exhibitions and projects have a valid concept behind them. “In fact, I spend more time on the thinking stage than on the actual execution of both projects and individual works. It’s a thankless task, as there’s no physical result
whatsoever!” D’Olivares focuses on technique in order to perfect his works and ensure that the replication of the ripped and pasted overlapping posters appears convincing. With this in mind, he paints on canvases that have been glued onto aluminium and then crinkled, like posters that have been torn from their backing and thrown to the ground. As part of his deeply cosmopolitan approach, D’Olivares seeks out ideas in streets, squares and parks, both in the city centre and in more peripheral areas where the people and their respective ways of life and customs are somewhat different. “I often find inspiration on public transport, especially on the metro and on suburban trains. This is where people from the most diverse backgrounds, ways of life, social classes and professions cross paths and encounter one another.” When hung on the walls of galleries, these works are like pieces of urban surfaces that have been taken out of context. “The white walls guide the viewer’s gaze and attention to the works alone, and when looking at them we feel palpably transported to a different environment, full of experiences.” They are like excerpts from a poem, drawn from every stone of any given city. Looking at the work of Manuel d’Olivares, we can only conclude that the walls are speaking poetry. 9.
9. Nub...I, 2010 Acrylic on canvas glued on aluminum 44 x 68 x 100 cm 10. Ah, 2008 Acrylic on canvas 100 x 80 cm
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MANUEL D’OLIVARES
- EXHIBITION -
POET-ARTISTS AND
ARTIST-POETS
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TWENTIETH CENTURY POETRY AND VISUAL ARTS IN PORTUGAL The French Delegation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is currently holding an exhibition in Paris under the title Artistas Poetas e Poetas Artistas, Poesia e Artes Visuais do Século XX em Portugal (Poet-Artists and Artist-Poets: Twentieth Century Poetry and Visual Arts in Portugal). The exhibition documents a subject with a long European tradition, but one which has never yet been approached from the angle of Portuguese culture. By painting the written word and writing images, artists create a new and prodigious vocabulary of visual and literary signs. Ut Pictura Poesis: the old adage of Horace (65–8bc) lives on; indeed, it has never been more relevant than it is today. Poetry is under the spotlight as part of the special interplay that forms the focus of this exhibition. It brings together the great fin-de-siècle masters
text by ART CRITIC MARIA JOÃO FERNANDES
www.gulbenkian.pt
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1. Fernando Pessoa portrait, by Almada Negreiros, 1964 Oil on canvas 225 x 226 cm Coll. modern art center-FCG
such as João de Deus (1830–1896), a pioneer in his time with his lyricism in Cântico dos Cânticos (Song of Songs) and his love poetry; Teixeira de Pascoaes (1877– 1952), who was inspired by his native land in Marânus and voiced his saudade (longing) for a whole culture and civilisation in his evocation of paradise; and the painter-poet António Carneiro (1872–1930), the author of Solilóquios, his spiritual testimony. The exhibition obeys chronology while also breaking free of it, revealing, as though through alchemy, the unique light that shines out from poetry and painting, with all the brilliance of an apparition. It reveals the lyricism, nostalgia and symbolism of the early twentieth century, amply represented by João de Deus, Teixeira de Pascoaes and António Carneiro, before moving on to the dazzling advent of modernism in the figures of Fernando Pessoa and Almada Negreiros (1893–1970), its most iconic incarnation, and their impact on the international scene, along with the painter, illustrator and poet João Carlos Celestino Gomes (1899–1960), the heir to their tradition.
The magazine Presença (1927–1940) marked a remarkable period of dialogue between the arts in Portugal, and featured work by the painter-poet José Régio (1901– 1969) and the poet-painter Julio/Saúl Dias (1902–1983), whose drawings defined the style of the publication. Neo-realism, another of the historical art movements of the 1930s, 40s and 50s that fostered a close dialogue between poetry and painting, is also represented here in the poetry and visual art of the poets associated with the various issues of the magazine Novo Cancioneiro (1941–1944): Armindo Rodrigues (1904–1993), Carlos de Oliveira (1921–1981), Fernando Namora (1919–1989) and Joaquim Namorado (1914–1986), not to mention Mário Dionísio (1916–1992), the poet, painter and peerless art critic. Here it is also worth highlighting the painter Júlio Pomar (born 1926), whose work started close to neo-realism but quickly distanced itself from it. The visual world of Lima de Freitas (1927–1998) and the cosmological and poetic journey which formed the basis for his work are also covered here. Although Surrealism in Portugal emerged much later
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- EXHIBITION -
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3. 2. Escrita, desescrita (“Unwritten writing”), by Emerenciano, 1982 Mixed media and collage on paper and canvas 98 x 140 cm Coll. modern art center-FCG 3. Mêlée (Melee), By Júlio Pomar, 1968 Acrylic on canvas 146 x 97 cm Coll. modern art center-FCG 4. Eugénio de Andrade, 1991 Painting on paper Private collection 5. O Surrealismo (Surrealism), by Mário Cesariny, 1959 Oil on paper 33 x 45,5 cm Coll. modern art center-FCG
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than it did in the rest of Europe (the first exhibition was held in 1949), its proponents created deeply expressive, lyrical and dreamlike work. This movement is represented by a whole host of painter-poets (António Maria Lisboa (1928–1953), Alexandre O’Neill (1924–1986), Mário Henrique Leiria (1923–1980), Natália Correia (1923–1993)) and poet artists (António Areal (1934–1978), António Pedro (1909–1966), Artur Cruzeiro Seixas (born 1920), Carlos Calvet (born 1928) and Mário Cesariny (1923– 2006)). Included in their number is the utterly original and surprising three-dimensional surrealist vision of the sculptor and poet Isabel Meyreles (born 1929). The exhibition makes particular reference to the “momentum” of Portuguese visual poetry, which emerged in the 1960s and still lives on in the work of young artists, furthering the Baroque tradition revealed in the work of Ana Hatherly (born 1929), Ernesto Melo e Castro (born 1932) and Salette Tavares (1922–1994), who have all interpreted this medium in remarkable ways. Alexandra Mesquita (born 1969) is the youngest and most talented voice within this genre. The collage Poemacto, a quite literally one-of-a-kind
creation by Herberto Helder (born 1932), comes under the banner of visual poetry, with its dual splendour of the literary image and the visual image inextricably bound together. The final part of the exhibition brings together contemporary expressions of the symbiosis between the continents of words and images. Poetic writing and visual imagery seep magically into one another, leading to the “written images” found in the works of the painters Emerenciano (born 1946) and Eurico Gonçalves (born 1932) – whose art demonstrates an affinity with surrealism – and the calligraphic flourishes and sparkling freshness of the poet and artist Raúl de Carvalho (1920–1984). Such seepages also result in the “painted word”, including the unaffected, ecstatic, scintillating figures and colours found in the work of Eugénio de Andrade (1923–2005) and António Ramos Rosa (born 1924), both renowned throughout Europe for their poetic creations. The work of the poet Gonçalo Salvado (born 1967), another artist influenced by the Cântico dos Cânticos, also forms part of the Portuguese lyrical tradition. A
POET-ARTIST AND ARTIST-POET
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6. Opus, by António Areal, 1961 Enamel on platex 92,3 x 60 cm Coll. modern art center-FCG
more innocent and magical kind of lyricism can be found in the drawn poems of Vasco Lima Couto (1923– 1980) which are illuminated by the poetry itself. The sculptor and poet Martins Correia (1910–1999), gives form to images from his poetry within his paintings and sculptures. And there are many more artists who follow this centuries-old path, which is sure to continue to enchant us with the undying, dazzling beguilement of its various forms. There is sheer alchemy at play in the fusion sought by all of these artistic languages, which merges different ways of thinking and visualising: visible and invisible, reality and dreams, the objective world and the dreamscape, spirit and sensation, sensuality and
mysticism. This exhibition affirms the place of this great tradition, which was sparked by the Cântico dos Cânticos and inextricably bound up in the idea of love, within Portuguese culture, as well as the dialogue between the visible and invisible, and a sense of individuality that grants the viewer a glimpse of a land conquered through poetry, the mystical homeland of all dreams. Poet-Artists and Artist-Poets: 20th Century Poetry and Visual Arts in Portugal. Group exhibition of painting and sculpture, French Delegation of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. 15 January–30 March. 39, Bd de la Tour, Maubourg 75007, Paris.
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- INTERVIEW -
1. Domestic viability, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 200 x 150 cm
MANUEL PAINTER CAEIRCOLLECTOR INTERVIEW by MIGUEL MATOS
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- INTERVIEW -
2. Lollipops - O ensaio transversal (Lollipops - Test cross), 2010 Acrylic on canvas 195 x 147 cm 3. Tunnel #2, 2010 Acrylic on Aluminum 200 x 150 x 300 cm
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Manuel Caeiro sets no programme for his artistic work. He lets himself go until he encounters little revelations about himself in the geometric canvases he paints, always following a direction rather than an objective. “Things think themselves into existence within myself” the philosopher Maria João Ceitil said. Or as Picasso put it: “I don’t look, I find.” This work is not made up of blind leaps but of experiences that give rise to new paths within his investigation. The outcome is still under construction, as always: Manuel’s work is an unstoppable work in progress. The destination is uncertain, but the path is well-trodden.
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The art market has been generous to Manuel Caeiro. And this has nothing to do with his affable temperament, his broad Alentejo (southern Portuguese province) accent or his honesty as a person and an artist. All these qualities are recognised by the community of artists, gallery owners and collectors in Portugal and abroad (Brazil is just one of the countries where Manuel has attracted many admirers). But they are
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4. Domestic viability, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 200 x 150 cm
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not the reason why his projects have amassed a loyal group of followers. The thing that has benefited him most has been the seriousness and coherence of his proposals and the consistent quality of his output. Now, with Portugal deep in crisis, art as a business has practically stagnated and the rhythm of exhibitions is slow. This allows Manuel Caeiro to take advantage of the lethargy and concentrate on his pictorial research.
“To me, sculpture is actually an appendix to painting. There are other creators who do this, who revert the process...�
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5. 1200 m2 dentro de um T0 (1200 M2 within a T0), 2011 Acrylic on canvas 140 x 200 cm
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6. Amazing transparent emptiness #1, 2012 Acrylic on canvas 190 x 140 cm
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Costa, Cabrita Reis... What is a brick? It is still an object that is asking to be appropriated, and that can be linked to architecture. In more geometric language, there is a common line and some affinities, but completely different results. It is very easy to see when an artist tries to plagiarise the work of another. I don’t think any of that is happening. That’s why I dared to venture into the field of sculpture.
With your pieces in such high demand, did you feel tempted to slip into a formula to meet market requirements? I wasn’t about to slip into a formula because I have witnessed the risks that this entails. I’ve always had that thought in the back of my mind. When I make things, I do so with a pressing concern not to repeat myself, not to allow anything that isn’t good quality to leave the studio. The only work that leaves the studio is work that can exist outside of it, or which, even if I don’t like it as much, I recognise as important to my career path. I’m able to distance myself enough to take those decisions.
Your paintings often allude to threedimensionalism, to the object, materials... I think it would almost be a sin not to experiment with this. But doing it as though it were a game.
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You are essentially a painter but recently, for the first time, you exhibited a video installation featuring a succession of colours at the Old Riding School of the Polytechnic Museums in Lisbon. Normally I don’t make videos but I thought it would be interesting to create an audiovisual link containing elements that could refer to sporadic ideas that occurred to me during the process. I’d had this thought for a while, of making a note of these ideas while I was painting a picture. The video wouldn’t make sense in another space. It is a materialisation of an idea that goes in search of the picture that was right next to it. This idea of mixing various supports also bears a relation to sculpture.
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You sculpt as well, but, deep down, it is still painting. I see your sculptures as still being closely linked to the pictorial and establishing a direct relationship with painting. To me, sculpture is actually an appendix to painting. There are other creators who do this, who revert the process... But my idea is to make the two supports grow with the due degree of intimacy.
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I don’t think it’s outrageous to say that there are many artistic affinities between you, José Pedro Croft, Pedro Cabrita Reis and even Pedro Calapez. Not that I’m saying that you copy one another! In terms of sculpture, I have recently seen many artists using brick as an object associated with the practice of painting. That is the case of Pedro Calapez, Martinho
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Indeed, because you don’t take your sculpture very seriously! Every piece is almost like a study, but one of your paintings could begin with a sculpture. Do you use sculpture as a model or a starting point for painting? I make use of sculpture in order to be able to rethink my painting.
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You began exhibiting around 13 years ago. Taking your first works and especially the canvases inspired by the houses at Costa da Caparica (coastal holiday town near Lisbon), is there a common thread that runs through everything you do? Looking back and seeing photographs of works I’ve already done, I realise that there is a line, a more or less logical path. I always thought I was going very slowly, but there is a vast array of information that I’ve already put out. Although I think that sometimes I put certain works aside in order to explore a path to its conclusion, because I think that I can still go further.
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Sometimes there are paintings that refer to specific situations from earlier series... My work process forces me to look back. My work is very self-referential. When you look at one of my paintings it is sometimes difficult to tell which phase it comes from. But when you look at four or five years of work, you will be able to see a logic. When I start a painting, I don’t really know how it will turn out. I don’t have that kind of foresight. These paintings have value as permanent constructions. In fact, this can be noted by their dirtiness, in the mistakes that are never
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erased, the accidents that are kept forever... It’s part of my way of working.
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Is it this, fundamentally, that keeps you away from minimalism? When I started, my work was very minimalist. I thought that a plane with a colour identified the idea of totality. Then I started to realise that this work didn’t have much to do with my personality. In that respect, I would go so far as to say that my current work is autobiographical, not in the existential sense, but in the manner in which it reflects the way that I am outside the studio. I am a collector by nature and I find it very difficult to throw anything away. I keep varnish tins, pencils, paint tins, boxes of paint tubes, I keep everything. When I’m painting a canvas, every brushstroke forms part of that work trance. It is the ideas, the mistakes, the successes, the accidents and the failures as a whole. For me, all this has to be implicit in the painting. And the whole is what makes the totality. At some point, the backgrounds of my canvases became white, as I was looking for a cleanliness that served as a counterpoint to the total destruction of the picture’s regularity. What I’m finding nowadays is that the white background of the canvas gives me the perfect support on which to deposit all these concerns and feelings that surround the construction of the painting. I moved from a purer side to one of greater complexity, which is the opposite direction to that which most artists take. The constructions in my painting are sometimes very complex and even unhealthy because I never consider a painting to be finished.
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When you manipulate the phenomena of visual perception, you make the observer lose themselves in a multiplicity of dynamics and planes...
My paintings are based on intuition. At one point I formed a partnership with some architecture firms, partly to allow me to think about this better. There are many benefits that can be gained from this crossover. But my involvement with architecture is much more visual than technical. I’m not an architect and I often paint in a random manner. Some shapes are even impossible.
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Do they perhaps recall a kind of Escheresque construction, because of their absurd side? There are recognisable elements, such as staircases, signposts, danger signs or safety barriers. They are recognisable signs but they serve no purpose whatsoever. That way of constructing an impossible but recognisable space... Perhaps. For a while I thought about the degree to which my sculptures and paintings could be functional, but then I realised that I wasn’t really interested in that.
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Do you intend to build parallel worlds? For me, the most important thing in an exhibition is to see that people have taken to my pictures and, in their minds, been willing to continue developing them. Painting isn’t a closed act. There is the possibility of continuing it. This isn’t just formal work, it’s more than that.
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I read that your work is “radically experimental.” Do you agree with that? With the ideas buzzing around my mind, if my studio was 500 metres squared, my work could be terribly experimental.
“For me, the most important thing in an exhibition is to see that people have taken to my pictures and, in their minds, been willing to continue developing them.”
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7. Amazing transparent emptiness #7, 2012 Acrylic on canvas 190 x 150 cm
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CAMERA WITH NUNO A VIEW CERA PHOTO by Julia Albani
TEXT by LUÍSA SANTOS
www.nunocera.com
1. Dark forces #6, 2004 Lambda print mounted on Diasec 100 x 70 cm
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“Trying to describe this one-meter long photograph is a bit like trying to describe a dream.”
2. Unité D´habitation #8 (Dwelling unit), 2006 Lambda print mounted on Dibond 100 X 70 cm
3. Lost, Lost, Lost #6, 2006 Lambda print mounted on Dibond 100 x 133 cm
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Nuno Cera is part of a young generation of Portuguese artists who have been developing their work internationally. His first international exposure, in 2001, was in Berlin with the support of Gulbenkian Foundation. At the time, he was heading a small photography and video post-production company and it was becoming difficult to find the time and income for developing personal work. The residendy at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien allowed the artist to create a solid professional and personal network in Berlin, while at the same time, exhibiting regularly in Lisbon. During that time, Cera produced several works exploring the characteristics of Germany as “Berlin - A super-8 movie” (2002); “The Prora Complex” (2005); “The Lost Soul” (2006); “UltraRuhr” (2006); “Unité d’Habitation” (2006); and “Sans-Souci” (2008).
The work of Nuno Cera is a singular example of the integration of memory and imagination expressed in images that stay between reality and fantasy. In “The Lost Soul #1” from his photographic series and video “The Lost Soul” (2006), the only human in the abandoned space has a ghostly appearance, with a bright light in contrast with deep shadows. Trying to describe this one-meter long photograph is a bit like trying to describe a dream. Is this a real building or some place in the imagination? In this first image of the series, the woman in the white dress is immersed in a look of intensity towards us. In the next photographs of the same series, the story continues and we are given more details of this woman in a dead building. This relation to death is more direct in the video “Unité d’Habitation” (2006). With “Shivers” (David Cronenberg, 1975) as inspiration, which can be seen in the relation with architecture and the modern world, Cera tells a story within another story. Having as background
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4. News from nowhere #8, 2007 Ink-jet print on HP paper 60 X 45 cm 5. The lost soul #1, 2006 Lambda print mounted on Dibond 100 X 70 cm 6. The prora complex #5, 2005 Lambda print mounted on PVC 100 x 70 cm 5.
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the iconic Berlin building complex from 1959 by the architect Le Corbusier, the plot evolves from a documentary tone to a horror fiction punctuated by a soundtrack that emphasises the horror characteristic of the video. The initial narration informs about the technical characteristic of the building and, suddenly, with the visual emphasis on the corridor and the change in the sound, the documented story turns into a case of murder. Death is not personified in most of Cera’s works, like in the 2006 “Unité d’Habitation”, because the artist prefers urban spaces emptied of human presence as in “Prora Complex” (2005). In Nuno Cera’s words “The representation of the architecture becomes more pure in this way. There also exists a romantic fascination for the “ruine” and “a future from the past” that makes me explore and represent spaces that have lost their functionality as places of death like the cemeteries of Modena by architect Aldo Rossi and in The Prora Complex.”
The Prora Complex’s construction was ordered three years before the outbreak of World War II, by Adolf Hitler’s and was designed as an idealic resort of leisure for the working masses of the Third Reich. A 10,000 room holiday complex on the island of Rügen, Germany, with sea-view from eight identical six-story blocks of concrete, each one the length of five football fields. Cera portrays its decadence and abandonment in what could be a documentary but rapidly becomes a platform for fictional stories. The corridors appear in front of us as if we are behind the camera or walking through in a never-ending search. In “News from Nowhere” (2007), Cera continues his reflection about cities. In this work, London, Berlin, Barcelona and Lisbon are explored in what could be a glimpse into memories. To Cera, the trip exists always with a specific goal in opposition to photographers who travelled alone as Raymond Depardon or Bernard Plossu. For “Futureland” (2010), Cera chose the cities
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due to the number of its inhabitants and the statistics of urban growth. But it wasn’t just a rational choice it was a personal choice as well as for some of the cities, like Jakarta, were chosen out of curiosity to discover a city. It’s this combination of rational and subjective that makes the series rich in diversity, giving room for the unexpected, as the image of this series where a girl appears in the foreground gazing at the city in the background, in a cinematographic composition. Nuno Cera makes various references to cinema in his video and photographic work. The diversity of the photographic field is not surprising, but the degree to which artists continue to reinvent the form and the use of video is something to consider. In recent years, it is arguably cinema that has been in the forfront as a source of inspiration and ground for exploration. Nuno Cera’s “Berlin - a super-8 movie” (2002) makes a point in this context, showing 4,200 photographs in movement,
in a rhythm of twenty-four images per second, in a very personal way of seeing this city. Cinema is very present in the work of Cera, inspired specially by the films made in the 1970s by horror filmmakers such as Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Jesus Franco, Jean Rollin and the Asian Gore. “LOST, LOST, LOST” (2005) which takes the title from the film from 1976 by the Lithuanian film director Jonas Mekas, plays around with the idea of memory. In Cera’s words, “It is an intimate photographic journal of abandonment, of loss, of fragments of reality. The differences between places, continents, present and past are all diluted. Everything becomes a memory.” Cera explores the idea of a memory in fragments of bodies, details, close-ups, urban spaces, objects, empty beds or deserted and blurred places, draw the line between fiction and reality.
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7. Futureland #17, Shanghai , China. 2010 Ink-jet print on Hahnemühle paper 110 x 145 cm 8. A room with a view # 12 (Grand Hyatt, Shanghai), 2010 Lambda print mounted on PVC
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Besides the dichotomy of fiction and reality, Cera plays with the dichotomy of architecture and nature. Where architecture appears as pure conception of space with its own life (and death), nature is shown with an intense stillness. Architecture and nature, in Cera’s work share the thought of the inescapability of death in life as in the video “Dark Forces” (2004), shot in Viseu, Portugal, after a fire, showing the once green forest with the now burnt trees standing almost as if it were painted on a canvas. Here, again, the soundtrack (the symphony of Góreckui) plays an important role in terms of adding layers to the images. The choices of sound in Cera work are always coherent with his images. In the video “Suspensão” (2012), the sound is crucial to create the conditions for contemplation that this work requires. About his last video from 2012, Cera explains: “I worked with João Ferro Martins in the musical conception and it
was an interesting process but also very demanding. The choices of the sounds were made in a permanent dialogue. On one hand, I knew very well what kind of sound I needed and João, on the other hand, had to adjust the material various times until this dialogue was synchronized.” In 2013, Nuno Cera’s plans are drawn by more travels. With a fund from Fundacion Botin (Santander), and the International Residence Recollets, in Paris, Cera will develop more work about relationships and dialogues, between complementary concepts of space and time, identity and anonymity, utopia and ruins, architectural layers of sociality and the edifice complex, transience for building political and social ideals.
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Making history with CORQUE cork text by CATARINA VILAR
The aim was to bring together design, sustainability and originality and combine them with a material that is as Portuguese as fado. Once this test had been passed, a brand that is as innovative as it is creative emerged. www.corquedesign.com
Born of a strong personal conviction, this is a Portuguese brand with its own seal of quality. Environmental awareness, a vision of sustainability, the questioning of established paradigms and a search for new solutions. Any challenge worth undertaking involves a good deal of irreverence along the way. Add to the mix the determination of those who believe in it, and outstanding results are guaranteed. This is the spirit in which Corque Design was created, a project that offers design objects made from cork that is proud of being entirely Portuguese, from the raw material used to the talent that works it. Like any good venture, it has already secured its place in the market. The brand, its founders, the designers, the material and the production are all Portuguese. Despite this, it was created as a global concept because designer Ana Mestre - who established the brand in partnership
with Gonçalo Riscado - approaches Portuguese culture on an international scale. Mestre is Corque’s art director. She defines the brand’s central concepts and communications strategy and employs some of the very best Portuguese designers. Various proposals are considered here, devised by a team of professionals that includes names such as Fernando Brízio, Sofia Dias, Pedro Silva Dias and Toni Grilo. From the outset, the intention has been to research new applications and design solutions, based on the use of cork, “by means of strategies and processes that champion the use of creativity and conceptual development”. Furniture and accessories are the focus of a company that favours differentiation and added value. For Ana Mestre, design and innovation are one and the same, and both are at the very heart of Corque, which was officially launched at the Milan International Fair
1. PUF-FUP seat by Ana Mestre, 2005 Natural cork and cotton string 650 x 650 x 350 mm
in 2009. The search for new concepts is her priority and her main creative motivation. Here, a commitment is made to sustainability, whether in the production or the consumption and recycling of the pieces. The designer continues: “Eco-efficiency is built into Corque pieces by taking into account all the assumptions and strategies throughout the entire life cycle of a piece.” This approach takes every phase of a product into consideration, from the selection of raw materials and their transformation to the end of the object’s life. As well as creating products, Corque carries out scientific studies that quantify the final outcomes of the design process and the production of pieces. And the evidence is incontrovertible: these studies typically show that cork produces excellent results compared to other materials. With such a decisive outcome, it might appear that working with cork is easy. Far
from it. To begin with there is a confirmed scarcity of technologies suited to its design and a certain lack of information, which is why the designer carries out this scientific work, “precisely to try to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of cork as a material for product design.” The tree from which this raw material is extracted (without damaging it) may well be known for the inviting shade that it provides to those seeking a rest, but in Corque the important premise is work. Early on, it crossed the border and has already reached dozens of destinations in four continents. Although Oceania does not feature in its curriculum vitae, having a loyal international public is a source of pride. The international leverage which comes from having worked with institutions such as MoMA in New York cannot be denied and even specialist publications such as Wired and Monocle have praised the brand.
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2. CORQUI Chair by Pedro Silva Dias, 2008 Natural or black agglomerate cork. 600 x 750 x 690 mm 3. VINCO chair by Toni Grilo, 2008 Sandwich of natural agglomerated cork and rubber cork 940 x 640 x 640 mm
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Design shops and galleries throughout the world sell these cork items, from Lisbon to London, from Madrid to Amsterdam, not forgetting cities such as Helsinki, Berlin, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Dubai
Dreams have no limits and those of the designer have come to create an alternative concept for her international design brand.
With a critical eye and ever alert to environmental issues, Ana Mestre has always sought practical solutions for sustainable development, “which assumes that an equal balance is maintained between environmental, social and economic issues.” She has followed her premises intuitively and even incorporated them in her work. She has experimented and asked lots of questions, at one point becoming a researcher in ecodesign and joining INETI - the Portuguese Institute of Engineering, Technology and Innovation. One day she founded Susdesign, a studio for design and research in the area of Design for Sustainability. She began
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4. WALLCORK wall covering by Sofia Dias, 2008 Printed natural cork with a textile base 900 x 3000 mm (per roll) 5. Beja, 164 & Black Flower sideboards by Ana Mestre, 2009 Printed, natural and black agglomerated cork 6. PUF-STRING seat by Ana Mestre, 2008 Natural rubber and cork composite and steel joint screws 700 x 700 x 350 mm
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to formulate proposals for projects that dealt with Portuguese reality and issues and so Corque Design was born. “The aim was to use the greatest material resource in Portugal in cultural, social, economic and environmental terms, a highly sustainable resource and an icon of Portuguese identity,” the designer explains. Portugal has one of the most emblematic areas of cork oak forest in the world, with a culture that makes socio-economic use of this forest, and one of its main economic resources is cork. The formula emerged naturally and the difference was created through simplicity.
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Corque Design began by focussing on objects such as ‘puf fups’ (seats made of spheres), chairs, candlesticks or ice buckets. In four years, it has diversified, expanded and triumphed. Seeing the brand grow gives Ana Mestre a feeling of pride, especially when
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7. Corque Design director Ana Mestre with Lagarta modular seat, 2011 Black agglomerated cork 420x 420 x 330 mm
6. MOORISH MOSAIC table by Ana Mestre, 2008 Printed natural agglomerated cork 800 x 1800 x 40 mm
she feels the commitment of the project’s founding and creative team, who have never stopped believing in this vision. Dreams have no limits and those of the designer have come to create an alternative concept for her international design brand. In physical terms, this may involve taking the brand back to its origin, to the cork oak forest, “increasing the involvement of the people that this world belongs to and from there communicating on a global scale.”
Burel Factory´s hand-crafted wall coverings are exquisitlety made with the finnest Portuguese wools. Customize your walls from a selection of nine different textures available in 39 beautiful colors. We are a Portuguese company with a dynamic and innovative approach to our rich national heritage. Our project is based in Manteigas, in the Serra da Estrela region of central Portugal, which, as the only high-altitude montain range of the country, has a unic climate, history and culture. We have revived the production of this material in one of the last existing wool factories of Manteigas Town, creating products that bring together exciting new concepts and innovative design.
Loja da Burel: Rua Serpa Pinto 15 B, 1200-443 Lisbon, Portugal | www.burelfactory.com | isabel.costa@burelfactory.com | \
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MASTER DESIGN MODE... BY SARA LAMÚRIAS text by REGINA FRANK
Sara Lamúrias a young successful Portuguese designer plays with that gift-wrapping of the genius in a beautiful and witty way.
www.aforest-design.com
1. TV Off Show at Modalisboa
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Thinking of an artist in the 80’s often leads to a cliché of the “messy painter” that is drenched in the sweat and the colours of their own ingenious creations. Among them figures like Jean Michel Basquiat in New York, Rainer Fetting in Berlin, Julio Pomar in Lisbon, and even earlier Picasso in his Paris studio. Still today when we think of painters, most of us may be a lot more suspicious when the artist comes packaged in a tailored black Armani suit, scrubbed nails and perfect hair, even though that outfit suggests career or conceptual artist. Sara Lamúrias a young successful Portuguese designer plays with that almost gift-wrapped stereotype of the genius artist in a clever and witty way. For the project
Painting Cloth, her company aforest-design, invited several Portuguese artists to use a white T-shirt while painting. The evolution of their creative process remained engraved on the cloth. Not only did one purchase an original artwork that was composed by the accidents of inspiration, a relic and auxiliary of a potential masterpiece — one also acquired a stylish aforest-design product. The Last Chance to See, her winter collection from 2006/07 depicted in a smart way the effect of global warming on a large number of animal species worldwide. Sara collaborated with the illustrator Portuguese Silvia Vieira, who drew shapes for embroideries and prints of extinct species or species near extinction. The drawings are sewn into shapes and worn instead. A hood with ears transforms the
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2. 3 Circles and 12 pocket Design by Hand project 3. Painting cloth exhibition at Fabrica Features Lisboa 4. The Fur collection, Modalisboa archive, Photo by Rui Vasco 5. The Birdwatchers, aforestdesign for Burel Factory, Photo AlĂpio Padilha at Modalisboa
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model into a cute reminder of what we are about to lose if we continue our wasteful lifestyle. Even further she expands her idea with The Fur Collection. A foxshaped scarf loosely slung around a neck of a person reminds us of a time when fur was fashion without any consent to the harm this caused to an endless number of innocent animals. Today as vegans and vegetarians have their own restaurants or at least one or two choices on the menu (one would wish at least) we face those fashion furies in a more conscious and responsible way. Sara goes a step further and quotes those lapses of the unaware consumer and as she brings the shape back into fabric, she creates a powerful reminder of what future living and coexisting with nature could be. Her preceding winter collection TV-off is a witty statement against the dead-end “couch potato” TV zapping culture. It’s about mental hygiene: the cleansing of the mind from distorted manipulative
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5. Flat knitting hooded backpack, aforestdesign for Burel Factory
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6. Nest-to-sow (bird house) Photo Alípio Padilha
advertising and often biased news, and top-down culture. Aiming to shake up routines and questioning the role of television in people’s lives aforest-design came up with a smart looking edition of knits. Emphasizing the need for pause and reflection from television, Sara took the practically extinct, but formerly quite common, signal tests patterns and emission interruption signs. Test patterns, colour scales, shades of light, and white noise mix are decorating her sweaters, reminding us of the times when we would hear the national anthem marking the end of the transmission. A time, when it was unimaginable capturing and viewing a news-clip on a cell-phone, when information was still handwritten and palimpsest edited, fact checked, and many times censored. Her statement is also very critical and clear even though her softly knitted jumpers are also beautiful, comfortable, stylishly flexible, a feel-good shell. They are reminiscent
of a simpler time when our mothers still had the time and told stories around a fire while knitting our next winter garment, as the “caldeirada” (Portuguese fishstew) was slowly simmering in the caldron. Stop Motion is the name for an animation technique that brings life and movement to static objects. For the aforest-design’s 2007 summer collection, those motions are printed frame by frame onto a sequentially linked number of garments. As the models pass by, the printed object on the outfit seems to move on the light cotton and mixed jerseys. The fabrics motion contrasts with the stillness of the single image that comes alive through the sequence of the group. Birds fly, trees shed, nature wilts in black and white and withers shades of grey and brown. Again the conceptual smartness of the clothing is combined with great looks and seems like a snuggly cool summer outfit, that lets the body move without any restrictions.
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7. Odori Tabi Socks, Cherry Blossom 8. Odori Tabi Socks, Silent Snow
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stories that the stones, leaves and snow told me when crushed underneath my feet. Those poetic moments found in silent walks have nurtured my creative process until today, and for me the Portuguese language is an acoustic mirror of the rumbling sea arriving at the shore, the sound of the water mingling with the rolling shells and stones.” The five themes of the Tabi socks represents the oneness, the silent sound that a bare foot can make wondering through nature, dancing through the grayness of our streets and that lifts us gently from the floor. This fine footwear must be hand washed as they take us back to a time when footwear where meticulously cared for.
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The Drawn Strips is a collection of basic designs taken from comic strips, bringing the drawings from paper directly into our lives. Allowing us to play different roles in our own humorous short stories, with silkscreen printed scenes from different known cartoons and texts. Some of today’s cartoon prints may be culturally and visually predictable while at the same time aggressively marketed for the young consumer. Drawn strips bounces intelligently off this line, while through Lamúrias’ designs questioning the clichés and analytically creating alternatives. Silent Snow and Cherry Blossom are some of the names from the limited edition of 100 special pairs of Odori Tabi socks. The popular footwear among traditional Japanese dancers and theatre artists are designed to fit exactly the owner’s foot. Sequences and collages, autumn leaves, green forests and volcanoes are some of the Tabi-themes. “I used to listen to the
As if it was not enough to be able to cover your body from head to toe in aforest-design products; Sara Lamúrias has taken her designs to other products. We can also lay down on a pillow in the shape of a fallen chair - not just a clever and elegant metaphor for the lapse of our cultural functionality as we move further into a new age. We can snuggle into a soft rug pet pillow shaped to represent a deer or a bear, a recent collaboration with Burel. We can also carry our much needed belongings in one of her uniquely designed backpacks. The leather satchels (also by Burel) remind us of the ingenious designs of natural leaves traditionally abstracted in hand-knitted patterns of those warm winter woolens or even carefully carved wooden floors. To complete the picture, we can order a clever little birdhouse on which seeds are sown and thus grow grass on its roof, as we watch the birds come to feed. Or we carry a birdwatching knapsack on our backs hoping that the flock of birds imprinted on its fabric will make us fly.
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RICARDO
A friendly freaky hero
TÉRCIO
text by CATARINA VILAR
He spends all his time in a world of super heroes, children’s characters and parallel universes. He can feel proud of having broken into a market - that of French comics - that he had set his sights on for years. He sails through life as if he were the captain of a spaceship: with a tremendous enthusiasm for what he does, combined with awareness of the uncertainty of what awaits him. WWW.rictercio.daportfolio.com
1. “As aventuras de Maria do Mar e outras histórias para aprender“ (“The adventures of Maria do Mar and other stories to learn”), 2010 Digital Illustration
He draws, he illustrates, he sketches. He finds fulfilment through creating with lines and allowing his imagination to flow. When he draws, he oscillates between a chaotic stimulus and the lightness of silence. “I like to mix things up. At home I have a sense of calm, but when I was working with the Droid i.d. video collective I often chose to stay in the production room as I enjoy the bustle of the work environment, the comings and goings of clients, and watching colleagues’ projects develop.” Ricardo Tércio now shares a studio - The Mothership - with the Droid id. group and several other artists, in the centre of Lisbon, a place with no lack of bustle. This Portuguese illustrator is inspired by everything that goes on in the city’s streets: “I walk a lot, and I’m very observant.”
To make ends meet as a freelance illustrator continues a challenge despite all the commissions, the well-regarded work and the major clients. “One has to keep producing. I’ve worked in this field for more than 10 years, and only now am I getting close to a market and themes with which I can identify. The idea is to not give up.” Besides the super heroes, he also works on children’s illustrations for educational publishers, which is a job with more limitations. “It’s often frustrating as briefings and results tend toward the literal, politically correct and mainstream graphic options. I’m left with little room for manoeuvre for the kind of graphic eccentricity that I enjoy.”
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One thing is certain: his work is mainly for the market outside Portugal. Now comics are his day job, “I am on the look-out for markets and countries where I can do this in order to pay my way”. Tércio is to some extent self-taught. He got into the Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa [Lisbon’s College of Fine Arts] but did not finish the course, so he gained experience in get-togethers in Lisbon’s Parque Mayer and in fanzines. He doesn’t like to focus on a single life plan; instead he would rather embrace several, through which he
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can explore, learn and allow the imagination to flow. He’s most proud of what he is currently working on: “Even after a number of set-backs I never gave up on my dream of working in comics in France. It took me years, but I’m now doing it.” This is something he has actively pursued. He wanted to learn to do comics, to work with other scriptwriters in order to train and to one day write his own stories. While this is one thing that he has achieved, there are others that will follow: “In the next few years I would like to spend some time in California and work in visual development/character design for animation.”
“Even after a number of set-backs I never gave up on my dream of working in comics in France. It took me years, but I’m now doing it.” 3.
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2. “Krampus”, 2011 Digital Illustration
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3. “Spidey & Vulture”, 2010 Digital Illustration
4. “LXE28”, 2009 Digital Illustration
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fascinated by what one could do with a €500 pc, a €1000 camera and a can of green paint. I still am actually.” He still values VJ-ing for its scenic and dramatic potential, and for the narrative curve of its language. “Video-mapping is still a relatively unexplored area.” A dream come true For many illustrators, working for Marvel is a lifetime dream. Several artists such as João Lemos, Miguel Montenegro and Daniel Maia are included in the group of those who have already worked for this prestigious comic book publisher. Ricardo Tércio has also had his drawing immortalized in work by the publisher, which is responsible for heroes such as the Incredible Hulk, Spider Man and the Silver Surfer. In 2009, Tércio published the number one issue of a collection he had himself designed for Marvel. That’s right: the first number of Spider-Man Fairy Tales was designed by him, with Mary Jane as Little Red Riding Hood, Peter Parker/Spider Man as the Woodcutter and Aunt May as the Grandmother. “These special projects from Marvel also serve to explore new markets, use alternative styles and artists and, in a way, to test upcoming artists.”
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As Ricardo Tércio is the captain of a space ship which aims to explore new worlds, it should come as no surprise that in addition to illustration, he spends time doing other things, like VJ-ing. He has also made video-clips: “I don’t do it much anymore, but I had a lot of fun. I co-founded Droid i.d. in 2002 with my friend Paulo Prazeres, as I was fascinated by old-style special effects, matte painting, and unusual chromas. I was
This was a very special door that opened in the virtual world of the Internet. In 2006 it was through bits and bytes that Tércio managed to get to CB Cebulski, script writer and head-hunter. It didn’t take long for them to come up with some joint projects. This was followed by the invitation to work for Marvel. In a field where the sense of personal achievement is tremendous, there are also difficulties: “Working on a monthly title for Marvel is really hard! You have to do 24 pages in under 30 days... Though on special projects the time-scale is a little longer. I had less than 45 days for Spider-Man Fairy Tales 1, which was done in vector graphics. In the case of the Avengers I had more time because I used the classic process of pencilling/clean up/scanner, which is slower.” With a brief nod to the past, he recalls that drawing has been a long-standing passion. “I started drawing when I was five years old, inspired by the Disney films. After that came comic strips, Marvel, Asterix, Lucky Luke and Spirou. My parents studied film and theatre, and so I was exposed to graphic narratives from an early age. And then of course there was The Incal... That was definitely responsible for my 101% passion for comics.” And in the midst of all this dedication to
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5. “Stillness”, 2010 Digital Illustration 6. “As aventuras de Maria do Mar e outras histórias para aprender“ (“Maria do Mar adventures and other stories t learn”), 2010 Digital Illustration
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drawing, what is the word that best describes Ricardo Tércio’s work? He takes some time to think, but finally he says: “Friendly freaky. Stylistically it is in the battle between minimalism and the baroque.”
something much simpler than working for Marvel: “I want my life to be full of friendship.” It is this that brings a special tint to the odyssey of this illustrator born in Portugal but who has world-wide appeal.
In spite of his fame he realises that he will never be satisfied. And that is how he likes it: to live an eternal quest and to embrace the greatest challenges. He is still trying to find his true essence, aiming for
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LILIANAThe ALVES metamorphosis of jewel lery text by CATARINA VILAR
One of Liliana Alves’s pieces might be a necklace worn during the day or a belt come the night, while a brooch might just as easily transform into an earring, as design is placed at the service of functionality and aesthetics. This process of metamorphosis is a long way from that immortalised by Kafka, but it is loaded with the same sense of surprise. WWW.joiaslilianaalves.blogspot.pt
1. Metamorphosis, Necklace & double brooch Silver and white zircon
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“My process is one of constant deconstruction, as my inspiration comes from the material and the way in which it is used.” 2.
A story normally begins by introducing a main character, or at least by describing her surroundings. In this case, it proved compelling to devote the first lines of the tale to the artist’s working process, which serves as the element of surprise in the plot. Liliana Alves’s art is based on utterly unique pieces of jewellery, the result of a process that focuses on deconstruction. From the point at which she is struck by inspiration until the time when someone chooses the piece as an embellishment, all stages of the process are far from obvious. Like a magician, the jewellery designer pulls her pieces from boxes in order to present them to the viewer. Some of them provoke a reaction of surprise that would be worthy of the best magic trick. There are no rabbits being pulled out of hats here, but rather beautiful pieces wrought from precious metals and imbued with a very special charm. Liliana likes to innovate, and has devised new types of fittings and clasps, allowing her pieces to be adapted again and again. “I have always wanted to go beyond what is visible, and on a technical level I like creating pieces that can be transformed and personalised by the wearer. In itself, a piece of jewellery is like an amulet, but what mainly interests me is encouraging various possible interpretations of the same piece. My process is one of constant deconstruction, as my inspiration comes from the material and the way in which it is used.” She is inspired by a number of things, from forms found in nature, architectural lines and photography
to furniture design. She instinctively reinterprets the visible and seeks to look beyond what an object, person or word might initially seem to reveal. “In this way, I can find my own expression, by playing around with different forms. Jewellery has something of alchemy about it, in its manipulation of materials, which I find very appealing. The material can be transformed in various ways, and this serves as an endless source of inspiration,” she says, her eyes shining brighter than the purest of metals. “Most of all, I like to go back to the source of the materials that Earth has granted us.” Liliana Alves studied art at high school, where she concentrated on sculpture and jewellery, without ever guessing that one day this would come to be her professional field of expertise. At 19, she enrolled in a professional jewellery course, and would leave three years later with a strong desire to put across her vision of this art. She learned the basics, concepts and techniques there, and this allowed her to later adapt them to create something new, as she has done with everything throughout her life. One woman, three roles Born in 1982 in Caldas da Rainha, in the central part of Portugal where she has her studio today, she realised that jewellery was her future less than a decade ago. While inspiration might well be the secret ingredient of every artist, in the case of Liliana Alves’s jewellery,
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2. Chitas, bracelet Silver & onyx stones
3. Chitas, necklace Silver & onyx stones
4. Chitas, ring Silver
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ideas come when she least expects them. Sometimes she wakes up remembering an image that she saw in a dream, and ends up working it into a piece. She is in a constant state of watchfulness, anticipating these and other such moments of inspiration. She begins by doing sketches, but does not spend too much time on them, moving on to working on the actual piece almost right away. “Often it’s the material that determines the form that the piece will take,” she explains. She does not preclude any materials, but admits that silver is at the top of her list as the metal that she likes to work with the most.
Along her jewellery course Liliana Alves learned the minute techniques involved in filigree. Today she incorporates those methods into her creations, but in a way that is utterly hers. The touch and contrast between the materials used is all thought out carefully. Experimenting with pieces is not necessary, as this knowledge has become second nature. In this case, statistics comes to the aid of art.
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5. Pulse, earrings Silver
8. Lightness, ring Silver
6. Beetle, earrings Gold, silver & black zircon
9. Lightness, necklace Silver
7. Roots, ring Silver, mother-of-pearl & black zircon
In less than six years Liliana Alves has succeeded in creating her own brand, invested in her studio and already reached a level at which she sees her art being
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recognised. Her work is sold in Portugal, Switzerland and Spain, and she is set to conquer more territories in 2013. She already has three dozen private clients around the world. “I have clients who own gold jewellery that they don’t like, so they ask me to transform it using my artistic vision. I’m completely open to such suggestions – it’s like being given a stone, from which I can make a jewel.” All of her pieces make their mark through their creativity, design and ergonomics. In her work, the artist has to divide herself between different roles. Her art is based on creativity, but she also has to act as a businesswoman and market her brand astutely. A born communicator, she does her own PR even when on holiday, thus winning over new stockists.
collaborating with artists involved with other media, and has already partnered with a ceramic artist and a Portuguese sculptor. Thinking outside the box is one of the creative elements that run through her work. She believes that her short yet successful career is the result of a mixture of proactiveness and luck. An article about her art appeared in a supplement of a Portuguese newspaper and attracted the attention of the lead singer of the group Deolinda, Ana Bacalhau. Since then, Bacalhau has acted as an ambassador and devout fan of the Liliana Alves brand, and has helped to bring greater attention to her jewellery. With her unique pieces that appear to magical transform themselves from one creation to another, she will never stop the eternal metamorphosis that leads to her creations.
Liliana Alves is the only jeweller in her family, but she has managed to get her father, Manuel Alves, involved in her vision. He is in charge of most of the administrative side of the business, and has also mastered some of his daughter’s techniques, so that he now helps to prepare the materials and finalise some of the pieces. As she proceeds to test her limits, this young artist enjoys
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1. One and Only line, Photo by Gonçalo Claro & production by Joyce Doret
2. Animal line
3. Animal line
text by CATARINA VILAR
They are top quality modern designs that are original and exclusive. Unique bags with their own identity, DNA and a Portuguese stamp of approval. Handmade becomes more than a marketing slogan and turns each MUU bag in one of a kind. WWW.muuhandbags.com Buttons, rivets, pieces of leather, chains and templates vie for space alongside sewing machines and craftspeople in informal surroundings. Stepping into the studio that produces Muu bags and accessories is like taking a step back in time, where the skill and craftsmanship of every worker is vital in achieving an exclusive and high-quality product. This Portuguese label, which is nationally designed and crafted, has in little more than a decade proven that some good ideas really can take off. Having conquered Portugal with its two own-brand shops, one in Sintra and the other in Lisbon – as well as having lines in multi-brand
stores, Muu is now ready to conquer the world: its new challenge is to break beyond national borders. In this new endeavour, it aims to invest in own-brand and multi-brand stores, as well as in its website, which offers a wide range of its products. The next step for 2013 is internationalization. Fewer than 20 people work in this company which produces around 300 bags a month. Every day they count on the irreverence, quality and exclusivity of this firm. And in this dream turned reality, everything always starts with a shot of creativity which is then put
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4. Josephine line 5. Josephine line 6. One and Only line 7. Indian line
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to paper. This is followed by experimentation, just as in a laboratory: a prototype is made, the weight, the functionality and the design are carefully considered. Most then go on to the production line. Then comes the cutting and stitching by the highly trained craftsmen and women. The models are repeated, but the materials and colours vary for each one. Every new bag has its own identity, just like any thoroughbred. Differently from factory production lines, here every single button, fastening or handle is sewn by hand. The label invests in quality, in careful design and in the
individuality of each of its products. This means that if you see a Muu bag you like, you’d be recommended to buy it straight away, as if you turn your back you may well not find another like it. For those who like to feel they have their finger on the pulse, a word of advice: the name of the label is like the sound of a cow, which provides the material that is used in these wonderful accessories. When they are ready to leave the studio and take their places on the shoulders of the most discriminating buyers, dozens
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of bags line up along the wall where the magic takes place, in a wonderful exhibition of exquisiteness. While it originally began with large practical bags, as time has passed the label has diversified: from clutches to purses, to bracelets, aprons and cushions, there is a wide range of items on offer. Moreover: this attention to detail, the investment in quality, the distinction and focus on craftsmanship is not just a strategy but a way of living for those who have brought this label to life. And they have also succeeded in increasing the pleasure of those who make and buy them. Based on this philosophy - that is as organic as it is original -, it is no surprise that Muu does not fall into the trap of producing traditional seasonal collections. There are product lines, based on eight main themes that are constantly being renewed. Ruffles are predominant in the Josephine line, simplicity in the Basic line, the Animal line needs no further explanation, the Indian line has plenty of fringes, the Rock the City line is for women who are a little more daring and alternative, and although the Street Art line doesn’t have graffiti, it does offer practical everyday bags. For those who want exclusivity, they can find it in the One and Only line, which always has something original to offer. In this overarching concept anything can happen: new lines, new models, new ideas. But always keeping to the same approach. Its customers, who range from 20 to 80 years old, are just as varied as the Muu bags themselves. Some are sophisticated, others more casual, some are inspired by hippy chic, some have collections of Muu bags by the dozen, with one for every occasion. It is the attention to the tiniest details that makes such a difference, and that provides the magic that Muu customers already know and love.
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8. We Three store, Lisbon - Portugal 9. Details line, belt pocket 10. Muu by Me, personalized bags
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JOANA BRUNO - WHAT - Scientific Illustrator - WHERE - Barreiro - AGE - 25 - CONTACT - joana.bruno@gmail.com - AT - www.joanabruno.com
Born in 1987 in Barreiro, Portugal, Joana Bruno had demonstrated interest in drawing and nature from a very young age. She graduated in Archaeology from UNL (New University of Lisbon), and studied Scientific Illustration at IAO (Institute of Arts and Crafts) also in Lisbon.
She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Scientific Illustration at ISEC/UE (Superior Institute of Education and Sciences - Évora University). Joana has participated in collective exhibitions such as “Zoografos” at the National Costume Museum (July – September 2012) in Lisbon and “Ciência e Arte” at Soares dos Reis National Museum (January – February 2013) in Oporto.
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1. Fossil (Clypeaster marginatus), 2011 Graphite 30 x 21 cm 2. False map turtle (Graptemys p. pseudogeographica) in dorsal view, 2012 Ink on scratchboard 30 x 30 cm 3. Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) wing, 2012 Graphite on scratchboard 50 x 30 cm
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4. Zoom in: water hyacinth weevils feeding, 2012 Graphite & coloured pencils 42 x 30 cm 5. Scomber scombrus, 2011 Watercolor 42 x 30 cm 6. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, 2013 Ink wash 29 x 21 cm 7. Sequential reconstruction (Homotherium latidens), 2012 Graphite & scratchboard 60 x 30 cm 6.
8. Chamaeleon head, 2011 Pen & ink (stippling) 21 x 21 cm
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PHOTOs by Francisco Nogueira
BRANCA CUVIER - WHAT - Jewellery Designer - WHERE - Lisbon - AGE - 29 - CONTACT - info@baguera.eu - AT - www.baguera.eu
Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1984. Branca Cuvier studied painting, drawing and jewellery design from 2003 until 2008 at Lisbon´s Ar.Co.
In 2007 she started her own jewellery design studio, working independently on her own designs and projects when in the same year she was nominated to exhibit in Amsterdam at the Sieraad Fair with the piece “White Faith”, and was also selected by “New Traditional Jewellery” to exhibit at CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, Netherlands in the same year. Cuvier has collaborated with fashion designer Lidjija Kolovrat, Martin Kullik in the Steinbeisser project (Hamburg), Participated in the exhibition “My Suitcase is my Oyster” at Pinakothek Der Moderne in Munich, and studied jewellery at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. At the end of 2010 Cuvier finished her internship with the artist Lucy McRae then moved back to Lisbon where she is currently living and working on her jewelry design brand “Baguera”.
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1. White Faith ring, Brass, gold & efa plast fimo light. “A conceptual jewellery piece to help rescue the silence and serenity in need and then hold inside whisper prayers and doubts.� 2. Vectory collection clutches for Baguera, Acrylic, leather & metal
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3. Belly’s Stethoscope, Created to evoke the very first noises every baby hears. It allows you to hear your inside rumblings and make a trip to the womb. 4. Mask, Inspired by Alice Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
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- FUTURE Euro Cleaner by Mariana Gillot
The present economic crisis which is felt throughout Europe and the world has had strong repercussions in the arts and the cultural panorama of the countries involved. Portugal has been strongly affected by this reality so their artists struggle; and very often their efforts to continue creating are underestimated, so this tenacious struggle keeps their careers from coming to an end, and in turn the culture of the country can prevail. Mariana Gillot is the living proof of this reality. Her perseverance combines the restlessness of someone that absorbs directly these economic influences into her work. We could call it a social or visual scream or even a muted scream. Those who follow the trajectory
of this Portuguese artist, knows that silence is not part of her language, the restlessness towards the social reality that surrounds us gets transformed through an artistic language and is there for all to see. Indifference is replaced by an eagerness to show the public that the artist is not indifferent to the social realities that surrounds us and the message arrives instantly in a three-dimensional format. The crisis (economic or social) is therefore the subject Mariana Gillot delivers to us with tenacity and perseverance.
MANUEL CAEIRO DUARTE VITÓRIA RICARDO TÉRCIO MUU
£ 4,99 / €9,95
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