The exhibition Ponto Morto gathers oil on canvas, graphite on paper, acrylic on canvas, bic pen and markers on paper, watercolor on paper and photography.
All these techniques came together to scream in unison: “Ponto Morto” (Neutral).”
No parties, no festivals, no lunches and dinners, no visitors, no visiting. My mouth was covered, I don’t even know how to talk to someone who doesn’t say anything to me, in fact, I don’t even know who says something to me because I don’t say a word. But I listen, because we’re talking, we’re chating, we’re meeting up. The gerund appears only virtually because I don’t feel movement. I said “hello” to you at the window, I went for a run and felt like a criminal. I felt like giving hugs to those who were trying to take care of others, when everyone was afraid of them, but… hugs? Disgusting! Do not touch me! Don’t cough on me. I don’t know you at all: stay away! I’m walking in the middle of the road: I don’t want to cross paths with anyone. We could be friends, but I don’t know – where have you been? I’ve been locked up here at home, washing clothes and disinfecting supermarkets. I’ve been, we’ve been… We’ve been fighting, without being able to touch each other. So I was being pushed or I was sliding away or I was walking backwards.
And the imaginary?
We are gathered here to join what we felt and what we decided to transform into physical things. Is neutral always the dead point?”
*** Vernissage – 04th March – 18h ***
The vernissage accompanied by the duo Le Cabine, guiding us through the night with their groovy dj set.
• • • SCHEDULE • • •
04.03. … 18 – 22 h …. Vernissage feat. Le Cabine (DJ Set)
05.03. … 17 – 20 h …. Exhibition by appointment
06.03. … 18 – 22 h …. Exhibition feat. The Tourorists (concert)
07.03. … 17 – 20 h …. Exhibition
08.03. … 18 – 22 h …. Finnisage feat. invitational Jam Session hosted by Madama
*Please book the exhibition visit via 00351 932249633
• • • ARTISTS • • •
Antonio Cassiano Santos
Bringing an object out of a stationary state requires more energy than keeping it moving. Getting out of stationary states is complicated, the body and mind create low-energy habits that are difficult to change. I think that to define the concept of stillness we should equate it with an antagonistic concept. Being still implies that there was, or will be, a different moment in the timeline in which we are not still, maybe that’s why I think a lot about the importance of making a balance between the good and the bad that you get from a more circumscribed life. I present in the exhibition 4 self-portraits, some more in neutral, others less so, but I leave which are what, to those who see them.
Josefa Searle
This work arises from the need to move, to not stop. It was made at a time when the whole planet froze, industries stopped, schools were empty, and office buildings had their lights out for months. Yet there is something in us that cannot stop. What is that feeling? What is that feeling? What things differentiate us from mere machines that turn cold at the flick of a switch? This work attempts to answer those questions, and best of all, I was not alone. There were just as many people as I was looking for the answers, in fact, most of them. The rebellion of the movement, at a time when everyone was in a dead spot.
Mara Santos
This collection is born from a postponed desire. Seventeen years ago, in my adolescence, inspired by a romantic scene from a movie, I visualized the feeling of freedom I would have when I grabbed a brush and several colors and with them expressed my feelings, emotions, dreams or simple ramblings. In 2021, already in this pandemic context, a friend asked: Is tomorrow when you will buy the canvas? And so it was, and tomorrow became today and today became yesterday and in a repetition movement without ever repeating the result I have been giving hands, color to imagination in moments of fun, sharing and lots of laughter – how nice it is to be able to play again without judging, only appreciating!
Semog
They say that stability is made in the balance between opposing forces and cycles of motion. Suddenly, the world was at a standstill. The pandemic brought an abrupt change in the usual cycles. Yet we never had so much time to ourselves, and the internal movement was increasing, even strenuous. I always try to paint what I am experiencing; to mirror in my paintings something I am seeing with my own eyes. At a time when loneliness and individualism are more permanent, my urge to paint outer life has never been greater. Nature is always in motion. Either because human beings or animals move in it, or because of its own natural condition. You can never see the same landscape, even though it is unique. It is always in motion, and perhaps this is why it brings us stability.
Vasco Teles da Gama
The works I make have no ambition or preciousness whatsoever. They are the direct follow-up of the drawings I have always done spontaneously during classes or distractions, moments in which I found myself with a ballpoint pen and any kind of paper in front of me, whether it was squares, kitchen paper or a coffee table cover. This basic condition for drawing (a pen and a surface) turns out to be the most intuitive expression of art available to any of us since the industrial revolution. It is possibly the most basic form of plastic expression today.
João Maria Alves
“The passion caused by the enormous and the sublime in nature, when these causes operate most powerfully, is true astonishment; that state of the soul in which all our movements are in abeyance, containing even a certain degree of horror .” So proclaimed Edmund Burke in ‘”The Philosophical Inquiry into the Sublime and the Beautiful” in 1757, giving Romantic artists like Turner or John Martin a more formal analysis of the thinking behind the current that was gaining prominence in the second half of the 18th century. The Sublime takes us to the Dead Point, to the serene contemplation of our diminutive dimension, of our fragility. It is in an inevitable shipwreck, in an indomitable fire, and in the car that is coming too fast towards us.
