Bloco103 | Contemporary art

LISBON

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“What you’re doing isn’t new sculpture or new painting… let’s leave these commonplace categories to the clichés of the lazy, conservative critics. You’re stubborn: you go back to the old and you search for the new. There are some people who have proclaimed the death of God. But, as far as the death of Art is concerned, we still have a word to say on this matter… The final catastrophe is unimaginable, even though there are more and more elementary catastrophes taking place all around us.

We’re dying, it’s true… but not so slowly!”

Fragments from a letter by Ernesto de Sousa (May of 1984)

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Artists

Ana Tecedeiro 13

Ana Velez 19

Inês Norton 23

Inez Wijnhorst 29

JOANA ASTOLFI 33

JOANA RêGO 39

Justino Alves 45

Mário Rita 51

MIGUEL NAVAS 57

Mónica Mindelis 61

Pedro Chorão 65

ROSÁRIO REBELLO DE ANDRADE 69

SARA MAIA 75

Tiago Mourão 79

VÍTOR POMAR 83

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Bloco103 | Contemporary art In such a broad and diversified field as that of the Visual Arts, with its constant paradigm shifts and forever changing creative concepts, Bloco103 | Contemporary Art is always on the lookout for artists and projects that construct their own identity, covering distinct technical areas and different processes for the realisation of artworks.

Bloco103 | Contemporary Art opened as a gallery towards the end of 2011, its aim being to uncover artists who follow their own distinctive path, whether engaging in gesturalism, performative intervention or figuration. It is these acts and their coherence that express and amplify their meaning. And it is here that the power of art truly lies.

Established and emerging artists rub shoulders with one another in the gallery’s programme.

Located in the centre of Lisbon, opposite the prestigious Hotel Ritz, the gallery has four spaces with a contemporary design, produced by the architects JoĂŁo Navas and Fernando Reis Martins.

The aim of Bloco103 | Contemporary Art is to promote its artists internationally, setting up partnerships with European galleries, participating in international fairs and channelling its activity into ever wider and more promising areas.

Miguel Justino Alves, art director

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RUA RODRIGO DA FONSECA, 103B 1099-074 LISBOA | PORTUGAL WWW.BLOCO103.COM T. 00 351 213 823 131 TM. 00 351 961 042 199 BLOCO103 on: VIMEO | FACEBOOK

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ARTISTS

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ANA TECEDEIRO Memory is one of the central features in the work of Ana Tecedeiro, which is built upon numerous registers that involve and evoke everyday life. This collection or appropriation of registers reminds us of a child’s gaze – attentive, curious and devoid of any attempt at resistance. Although this gaze may seem ingenuous, it is filled with a profound meaningfulness, directing our attention to places and past experiences, while still retaining the power to reformulate them.

Her work has great versatility, not only in technical terms, adopting different approaches, such as an extraordinary coherence of form and concept.

The appropriation is clear both in her two-dimensional works (in which the introduction of certain elements provokes a carefully considered reconstruction that subverts the purely visual and preacquired elements), and in her three-dimensional constructions (in which Ana Tecedeiro concentrates, circumscribes and deposits objects, among small wooden cubicles or boxes). These objects then take on their own life, concentrating in themselves reminiscences of a past in which the spectator can see himself reflected and revisit himself, while at the same time reconstructing the different spaces and concentrating them into one single space.

by Tiago MourĂŁo

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Milagre I Embroidery on found engraving, 23,35 x 33 cm Frame 40 x 46,5 | 2012

Sei como te sentes Embroidery on found engraving, 25 x 33 cm Frame 40 x 46,5 | 2012

Retrato de DoĂąa Francisca Sabasa Garcia (antes de Goya) Assamblage on found engraving, 29 x 22,5 cm Frame 46,5 x 40 cm | 2012

Milagre II Embroidery and application of objects on found engraving, 32 x 23,5 cm; Frame 46,4 x 40 cm | 2012

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N達o sejas desmancha-prazeres I Collage on canvas 84 x 130 cm | 2013

NĂŁo sejas desmancha prazeres II Diptych | paper stapled on MDF panel 60 x 120 | 60 x 120 cm | 2013 (detail of the work)

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ANA VELEZ I work essentially with drawing and painting, touching upon themes that revolve around the concept of identity, and basing myself on three concepts: place, memory and the body. I see place as the container of memory and identity.

The city, as an architectural element, is understood as an instrument of memory, directly entering into the definition of collective memory that I defend. It is the memory that is based on spatial images of architectural places, on the spaces of the city and on architectural landscapes.

The prime aim of my work is observation: I consider that the creative process is closely linked to the visual process, to the capacity to see and the possibility of formulating judgements about things. And it is mainly developed around drawing.

I chose to use drawing due to its primary and elementary ability to represent, associated with its mythical status as the first and most immediate form of creating images, its intimacy, informality, immediacy, subjectivity, memory and narrative.

Drawing, through its loose association with personal unfettered expression, is the medium through which the past has often spoken 1 most clearly and directly.

1 DEXTER, Emma – Introduction. In Vitamin D: New Perspectives In Drawing.

London: Phaidon, 2005, p. 9.

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A percepção requer participação [RA2 3] Mixed media [acrylic and graphite powder] on paper 113 x 300 cm | 2012

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A percepção requer participação [RA2 7] Colored pencil on paper 64,8 x 101,6 cm | 2013

D 0001 Mixed media [acrylic and indian ink] on paper 100 x 70 cm | 2011

5252 2 Acrylic on linen 161 x 113 cm | 2009

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INÊS NORTON My work exists under the context of the present moment, fruit of the experience of the here and now, refusing any pre-deterministic logic therefore opening space for it to simply happen. Video, photography, and installation are some of the tools I use as means of expression, working on the conception of objects that do not always undergo a transformation but by simply using them out of context and metaphorically.

I create, believing that art is the path less obstructed to experiencing, which taps in to that millionth of a second prior to the impulse to create barriers and create concepts, that I call the truth. “ (...) a work of art is irreducible to a simple thing explainable through the connection matterform, because it has this capacity to exhibit a truth. A truth located in time and space which is at every instant of a determined world and earth.”

(Michel Haar, interpreting the reflections of Martin Heidegger in – The origin of the work of art)

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The forest project Mixed media, 175x120 cm 2012

Installation performed in the framework of the exhibition “The trees can hear you, if you talk to them”, Lisbon

O meu cubico Intervention wooden pallet, 110x80Â cm 2010

Installation performed in the framework of the Trienal of Luanda, Angola

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O sotão que trazes ao peito Instervention with old wooden boxes, variable dimensions | 2012

Cubic House Mixed media, 98x74,5 cm 2013

Installation performed in the framework of the exhibition “The trees can hear you, if you talk to them”, Lisbon

Reclaiming animism Mixed media variable dimensions 2012

Untitled Iron combs in hanging wood, variable dimensions | 2012

Installation performed in the framework of the exhibition “The trees can hear you, if you talk to them”, Lisbon

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Inez Wijnhorst The journey The path is constructed by continuous walking. Without looking back, as if in a pilgrimage. This is also the way in which images are constructed and de-constructed along the way. I follow my own work step by step, always with surprise and expectation for the things that invisibly are awaiting me around the corner. And, at each step, a door opens onto another perspective. I grasp the guiding thread and I see it changing colour, I see a structure emerging in the fabric of time. I let myself be dazzled by the patterns that weave webs underlying the images formed from memories. In them, the meaning is simultaneously contained and hidden. At the same time, I make patterns so that the void can exist. These patterns are drawn with subtle lines, which separate illusion from reality, and with them I create structures with a space to house the full range of experiences.

“The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together,” wrote Shakespeare. All matter is intrinsically characterized by good and evil, light and shade, joy and sadness, positive and negative.

Through the incidence of light or shade, things become objects that fool our gaze and can be seen from various sides. I wonder: what form contains what essence? and what is essence? what space is filled by memory in the stories that I tell both to myself and others in order to create the illusion of my identity. How do I con-form? Do I in-form? or do I trans-form? In this way, suspended between what is and what seems to be, in the reflection of the content in the form and the soul in the body, there exists communication beyond what words can say.

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Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 180x180 cm 2000

Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 120x120cm 2003/2005

Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 150x150 cm 2008

Untitled, Sand, 2010

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Study for a Self Portrait, 2013

Joana Astolfi Joana Astolfi’s work focuses on the transformation of forgotten and obsolete objects into ‘objets d’art’ through conceptual twists, creating unique pieces. Astolfi is a voyeur and a collector and is particularly interested in the process of resuscitating and transforming found objects, giving them a second chance. Each piece tells a story based on the memories of the objects that she finds. She often plays with the idea of scale and proportion and frequently invites the public to discover her artworks by looking through magnifying lenses or peeping through viewfinders. Astolfi likes to celebrate imperfections and mistakes, often evoking humor in her pieces.

“When I was a young girl I used to collect old photographs and invent the stories of the characters in the photos. My favourite toy was the viewmaster, I used to spend hours traveling that world of images.

I made drawings on top of old paintings and photos that I found in my grandmother’s house, never on blank sheets of paper, those scared me (and still do today)! I wrote love letters to my boyfriends on my grandfather’s old typewriter. I was crazy about miniatures and spent hours building dollhouses with every single detail you can imagine.

I preferred second hand toys to new toys. Today I continue to collect second hand objects that I find in flea markets, old shops and abandoned houses. I collect diaries of people I never met, porcelain birds, vintage chairs, drawers and lamps. I like to stroll through the streets of the Baixa district in Lisbon, I love the smell of bakeries, I love old hair salons and carpentry shops. I love to sit at the counters of typical downtown bars and hear the stories that the older people have to share.”

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Beside Every Great Man is a Great Woman 2013

Don’t Look Back Unless it’s a Good View.

2013

Most Things Relate When You Put Them in a Circle 2013

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Mirror mirror, on the Wall 2013

Break Glass in Case of Emergency 2013

A Conversa Ainda Não Chegou à Cozinha 2013

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JOANA RĂŠGO When someone asks me if I paint with my mind or my soul, I like to say that I am never not working, no matter what I do, I feel it is part of what I am doing. My work is also conceptual and I always start a project with a clear notion of what I am working with and about. But a painter always works as well with the soul, right? So the answer is always: I work with both.

I make innumerable formal and iconographic decisions in the process of working, during the preparation of a new project, and during the work in progress. There is also that recurrent question about what inspires me....I can say everything that surrounds me, everything that makes me live....

My work may be the fully expressive of myself - my intelligence, keen, observing, eye, emotionality, sensuality, romantic nature and theatrical bent. It reflects my enthusiasms, concerns, sometimes my political beliefs. My art also trys to reach out beyond the self to embrace the viewers intellect, memory and eye. It is an art that invites the viewer to decipher its information and become increasingly seduced by its form.

The formal and iconographic complexity ensures that at each viewing something new is noticed and another association is provoked.

It retains also the poetry, beauty, sense of humour that characterize the whole of my art.

I am really interested in the investigation of the relation between word and image. I am sensitive to the power of the word, verbal nuance is frequently introduced as a complement to works of a seductive plasticity. Similarly, the titles that I use on my paintings are neither descriptions nor allusions: rather, they are elements that supplement and complement the works as part of the process. The words have a presence that is as poetic as it is plastic.

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Intimate Immensity Acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm 2011

Fragmentos de uma biblioteca Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 160 cm 2013

Sushi Stories Acrylic on paper (with wood frame), 74 x 59 cm 2012 — 41

I de Ir Acrylic on canvas, 166 x 120 cm 2009

B de Brilho Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm 2012

S de Suspenso Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm 2012

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Justino Alves From a very early age, I have regarded painting as a space suited to the sensitivity that has always been a part of me, and as the quintessential medium that enables me to realise my work as an artist.

Over the years, as painting has developed, thematic cycles have been constructed (or, in other words, groups that exhibit varying degrees of closeness in form), most notably the following: – Forms and Spaces – Forms and Symbol – Composition – Composition and Still Lifes – Forms and Figures – Plane Forms and others.

Based on these frameworks, painting has developed at its own pace, evolving in the context of each thematic option, with certain images in particular standing out from its practice of symbolic proximity to reality or abstractionist suggestions developed on a plane surface.

All methods and their genesis consist in confronting substance, the geometry that sustains and characterises it, in improving technique and in the actions that construct the “picture” and its formal and semantic alignment.

It is in the course of these relationships that a powerful set of experimental gaps are added, which I sometimes find to be the key to another class of images, a starting point for a new incursion into the field of creativity.

In this way, the various stages and movements have been completed, their unity being situated in the transfer of the same Universe – from one picture to another – successively recreating the act of painting.

From this reality, its marks, stigmas and signs, there prevails a common cognitive characterisation – from the first to the last paintings – with an identity certifying its path and the choices that it has favoured.

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Forma Imagem I Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm 2002

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Imagem Acrylic on paper, 146 x 114 cm 2013

Mรกscara 46 Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm 2011

Mรกscara 58 Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm 2011

Composição, Figuras Simbólicas Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm 2009

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Figuras Oil on canvas, 100 x 81cm 1992

Figuras Oil on canvas, 100 x 81cm 1993

Composição; Sigrid Oil on canvas, 33 x 41 cm 1980

Composição Oil on canvas, 60 x 73cm 1979

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MÁRIO RITA (…) Rita has one very peculiar trait, which is to combine exaggeration with moderation, drama with tranquility, movement with inertia, extroversion with introversion, society with solitude… (…). As far as the corporeal and material aspect – technique – is concerned, this is a masterful mixture of drawing and colour, mass and form, the filling of space and a vacuum, gesture and non gesture, the unity and plurality of composition… (…)

by Fernando Martin Galán

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Serie Alices Ink on paper 29 x 32 cm | 2007

Série nº14 Mixed media on paper 175 x 150 cm | 2011

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Série nº14 Mixed media on paper 175 x 150 cm | 2011

Série nº14 Mixed media on paper 150 x 107 cm | 2011

Série 14 Mixed media on paper 150 x 107 cm | 2011

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MIGUEL NAVAS Art is to match: With an idea; With a subject; With ourselves.

In other words: - With reality...

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Untitled Acrylic on canvas 46 x 54 cm | 2013

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 40 x 50 cm | 2013

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 40 x 50 cm | 2013

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 40 x 50 cm | 2013

Entre o silêncio e a Paisagem #1 Acrylic on canvas 114 x 162 cm | 1994

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Mónica Mindelis Mónica Mindelis’ oeuvre is a unique exploration of the representation of aesthetic sensations, being most notable for its appropriation and proficient use of a pictorial language rooted in the 20th century.

Her work is characterised by an eclecticism, in which the techniques of abstraction co-exist with the random collection of urban images where the artist can glimpse ready-made paintings; where the expressionist, emotive gesture cohabits alongside a thought springing from the depths she finds in everyday landscapes; where research into the “patch” enters into dialogue with textures born from an imaginary frottage.

Mónica Mindelis’ painting is a process of construction. The pictorial structure springs from the initial exploration of the patch which incorporates the movements and images that the artist, as a flâneuse, absorbs from urban life. Each work is the result of an initial step towards the empty space of the canvas where its components gradually appear. The process is continued until the canvas reaches its moment of completion. Such a conclusion is reached on finding a balance between the most daring and the most subtle elements, on achieving the desired tension.

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bull moose_ou_Eu teria perdido o chão não fosse o vento tocar|-me nas solas dos pés Acrylic and latex on canvas 150 x 150 cm | 2012

Cara, Balão, Coração Acrylic, latex and oil on canvas 210 x 190 cm | 2012

Eu tenho mão que aperreia, eu tenho o Sol e a areia, eu sou da América Acrylic, latex and oil on paper/ canvas 150 x 150 cm | 2010

Sinfonia Acrylic, latex and oil on paper/ canvas 150 x 150 cm | 2011 — 63

Pedro Chorão There are two reasons why I’ve always been reluctant to talk about my work: 1 – because painting is for doing and not for talking about (let’s leave this to the others, if they wish).

2 – because this form of expression is enough in itself and it would be redundant to try and add to its meaning with words.

Yet, if painting were to have connotations with reality and could be explained, then it wouldn’t be painting any more, just as a poem or an erudite musical score wouldn’t be the same either. And they can’t be explained because they transcend all forms of apparent logical reasoning.

And, when I like a painting, I say to myself, “that’s an interesting picture, a curious painting”. And I enjoy feeling a little bewildered by it. Without any explanation.

Satisfaction in the midst of dissatisfaction.

I don’t believe that any painter can ever be satisfied because he thinks he has finally resolved a painting. That would be a mistake.

A painter lives by making repeated and constant attempts to do this in the hundreds and thousands of pictures that he paints throughout his lifetime. And he knows he won’t succeed. But, this feeling of dissatisfaction is essential if he’s going to explore further and with great curiosity.

©patriciachorao

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And this dissatisfaction brings him joy because it means he has refused to give up and take the easy way out.

Note: Painting is free. Which means that whoever engages in it needs to feel this freedom passionately. It’s good to make a break with convenience. It’s good to avoid being dazzled in any way by fashions or by whatever appears to be new (because it’s frequently only new on the outside, meaning it’s already old and adds nothing at all).

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Untitled Acrylic on canvas 200 x 250 cm | 2011

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 81 x 100 cm | 2009

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 97 x 163 cm | 1994

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 92 x 130 cm | 1985

Untitled Acrylic on canvas 97 x 130 cm | 1977

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ROSĂ RIO REBELLO DE ANDRADE I am compulsively attententive related to everything that surrounds me. My intuition focuses on what - I think - can open moments of light. I register those moments, try to translate them into what makes internal sense to me. An interior one.

Since I remember myself it is like this: trying to find the hidden side of things and give them a function. The light should be the unifying point. Thus in what cannot be seen in it.

This isn’t always possible.

My work seeks for possibilities. I try not to be stuck to a style or to its formal side. More important is how to make visible, with clarity through painting, drawing, sculpture site-specifc, etc. - the invisible side of things.

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Sun Graphite and Acrylic Paint on Arches Paper, 80 x 61cm 2013

Black Hole Graphite on Paper, 119 x 98cm 2013

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Crábula Nébola Graphite on Handmade Paper, 80 x 61cm | 2013

Orion Graphite on Handmade Paper, 80 x 61cm 2013

Dipthych Oil on Canvas, 220 x 110cm 2002

Wave Graphite on arches paper, 77 x 56,5 cm 2013 — 73

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SARA MAIA Sara Maia is a master in questioning. She uses painting as a narrative medium and confronts us at the border between the real and the imaginary. We know her visceral side, exposing the absurdity of the unusual, the dark corners with a rawness that does not leave us indifferent.

There is however another Sara Maia, revealing irony and social criticism, always balancing on a thin line that binds us and questions us. It is a painting of her time, of the issues and questions in direct confrontation with the set idea of decoration. You must want to hug her to achieve it.

Miguel Justino Alves

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Não há pão, comam bolos.

Acrylic on paper, china ink and collages 200 x 352 cm | 2013

Cara ou Coroa ou águas de bacalhau Acrylic on paper, china ink and collages 200 x 260 cm | 2013

Nada se perde, tudo se transforma Acrylic on paper, china ink and collages 200 x 275 cm | 2013

Não se pode domar os unicórnios China ink on paper 50 x 65 cm | 2013

Mosquito China ink on paper 50 x 65 cm | 2013

Torre China ink on paper 50 x 65 cm | 2013

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Tiago Mourão Tiago Mourão’s painting builds amid absences. These landscapes are no longer deserted, but they are still filled with silences. Adopting a more inquisitive stance, I can make out three forces that create a mutual tension: BUILT OBJECTS It doesn’t matter if these are tents, buildings or ping-pong tables.

Their value is in themselves: they impose themselves according to their own laws. Despite this, they retreat into the realms of mystery when questioned: what is it for? what is it? what is its real size? is it inhabitable? is it comfortable?

THE BUILDER Not the slightest trace of a human presence can be found in these paintings. Humankind has either left or is late in arriving. The only being that passed through here was the obsessive and rigorous painter/architect. He isn’t represented, but we can sense him. He’s still there. Watching us while we study his landscapes.

ATMOSPHERE The sovereign presence in the original void that the artist/builder populates with volumes. The atmosphere has powers beyond the painter’s control. He knows that it also creates, generates shadows, lights and chromatic effects. That we can’t follow its ridges or skirt round its contours, because it plays by other rules. Respecting the atmosphere means giving it space, giving it power over the space.

It is immaterial, indomitable, a powerful co-inhabitant of these landscapes.

by Ana Tecedeiro

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Série Paisagens Improváveis 1 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 2 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 3 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 4 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 5 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 6 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

Série Paisagens Improváveis 7 Oil on paper 20 x 24 cm | 2012

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VÍTOR POMAR … Let us ask ourselves what is needed for creativity, what it is that makes a person creative… There’s a tendency to think that someone who has a gift for music or who is a talented athlete will be creative in music, athletics, or whatever their specific area is. This isn’t true.

What makes someone creative is not their talent, because there are lots of very talented people who are not creative. Take Helen Keller, for instance: she was deaf and blind and yet became a great writer and an influential person despite her limitations, or, to some extent, perhaps because of them. What really makes people creative is courage, and the very core of religion is courage, faith and trust.

Faith is not just believing in something, faith is having trust, trusting in God, trusting in life, and trusting in other human beings. It’s trust and courage that lead to creativity, and this is inseparable from what we call religion.”

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Burning bush AAcrylic on canvas, 150 x 94 cm | 2007

09/11/12 Acrylic on canvas, 151 x 248 cm | 2001

Uma pátria assim Exposição no museu da electricidade | 2012

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S/tĂ­tulo Acrylic on canvas, 210 x 73 cm | 1978

Os atributos do ar II Acrylic on canvas and paper, 34 x 39 cm | 2010

Os atributos do ar I Acrylic on canvas and paper, 34 x 39 cm | 2010

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