PT

Através do prisma do livro “A poética do espaço”, de Gaston Bachelard, esta exposição junta trabalhos dos artistas Carlos Bunga, Diogo Costa, e a dupla Eduardo Fonseca e Silva e Francisca Valador; trabalhos que funcionam como mundos discretos, que contêm micro- e macrocosmos, e que ambicionam explorar e refletir a relação entre a interioridade e a exterioridade, tanto psíquica como física, criando imagens poéticas bachelardianas, que têm origem no encontro entre a subjetividade e a realidade, entre a intimidade e o mundo.

Inauguração da exposição
Qui 17 nov
18h às 20h30

Carlos Bunga
(Porto, 1976) frequentou a Escola Superior de Arte e Design em Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. Vive e trabalha perto de Barcelona. As suas obras, orientadas para o processo, são criadas em vários formatos: esculturas, pinturas, desenhos, performances, vídeo, e instalações in situ. Embora utilizando frequentemente materiais simples e despretensiosos, o trabalho de Bunga envolve um grau altamente desenvolvido de preocupação estética e delicadeza, bem como uma complexidade conceptual derivada da inter-relação entre fazer e desfazer, entre não fazer e refazer, entre o micro e o macro, entre investigação e conclusão. Ultrapassando a divisão entre escultura e pintura, os trabalhos enganosamente delicados de Bunga caracterizam-se por um estudo intenso da combinação da cor e da materialidade, ao mesmo tempo que enfatizam o aspeto performativo do ato criativo. Destacam-se as suas exposições em: Palacio de Cristal – Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Secession, Viena; Whitechapel Gallery; MOCA, Toronto; Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães; MAAT; Fundação Carmona e Costa; MACBA; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Fundação Serralves; Hammer Museum; e Miami Art Museum. Foi convidado a participar na Bienal de Arquitetura de Chicago (2015), 29a Bienal de São Paulo (2010), Trienal de Arquitetura de Lisboa (2010), 14a Bienal Internazionale di Scultura di Carrara (2010) e Manifesta 5, San Sebastian (2004). Recebeu o Prémio Internacional de Arte em Grand Rapids, Michigan (2013) e foi pré-seleccionado para o Prémio Artes Mundi 6, Cardiff (2015). Faz parte de importantes coleções, tais como: MOMA; Fundação Serralves; Hammer Museum; Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Museu Calouste Gulbenkian; e MACBA, entre outros.

Diogo Costa  
(1988) Vive na Trafaria e trabalha em Lisboa e Almada. É artista plástico e formador de arte. Licenciado em Pintura pela Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa. Ensina desenho e escultura no centro de formação artística Nextart, em Lisboa. Apresenta o seu trabalho artístico em exposições individuais, coletivas e residências artísticas, donde se destacam: Uma Figura Semelhante, exposição apresentada no seu atelier em Almada, premiada pela Câmara Municipal de Almada no concurso Jovens Talentos 2021; Fenomenologias Ultraterrestres, Curadoria: Inês Ferreira-Norman, Compostival / Matéria Cíclica, Peniche; Vir em Favor da Pedra, Curadoria: Ana Rito e Hugo Barata, exposição online, Umbigo Lab; Qual Paisagem, Sá da Costa Galeria, Lisboa; PANORAMA, curadoria: Adelaide Ginga, Le Consulat, Lisboa; Residência Artística na Casa-Animal - Organização: MArt e Musa Paradisíaca. Fábrica da Pólvora de Vale de Milhaços, Eco-Museu-Municipal-do-Seixal, Corroios; A L ́Heure Du Dessin, curadoria: Martine Robin, Château de Servières, Marselha, França; I = II, Curadoria: Ana Matos, Galeria das Salgadeiras, Lisboa; Face to face: The Transcendence of Arts in China and beyond, curadoria: António Quaresma, Reitoria UL, Lisboa. Colaborou como pintor cenográfico para peças de teatro, donde se destacam: Se Isto É Um Homem, cenografia: Manuel Graça Dias e Egas José Vieira e O Romance da Raposa, cenografia: António Lagarto, ambas produzidas pela Companhia Teatro de Almada. 
www.diogo-costa.net

Eduardo Fonseca e Silva (1993, Lisboa) e Francisca Valador (1993, Lisboa) estudaram pintura na Faculdade de Belas-Artes de Lisboa e trabalham juntos desde 2016, mantendo, no entanto, as suas práticas individuais. Exposições individuais: Subterrâneo, Museu Geológico de Lisboa (2018); Corda Bamba, Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa (2016). Exposições Colectivas: Depois do Banquete, Teatro Thalia, Lisboa (2022); Manta Ray, Matèria, Roma (2021); Dip me in the river, drop me in the water!, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisboa (2021); Chain Reaction #6: Las Palmas – Apofenia, Culturgest, Porto (2021); A Longa Sombra, Maus Hábitos, Porto (2021); Chain Reaction #6: Las Palmas – Apofenia, Fidelidade Arte, Lisboa (2020); Homework, Galeria Madragoa, Lisboa (2020); CENTRAL ASIA: Presença Brilhante (colaboração com a dupla primeira desordem), Lisboa (2019); No dia seguinte está o agora, CAPC Círculo Sede, Coimbra (2018); The dog is very confused, Galeria FOCO, Lisboa (2018). Outros projetos:  Torno, Livraria ZDB, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisboa (2021); Ceia, projeto Mais Um, Galeria 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisboa (2019); Sermão, Casa-Animal de Musa Paradisíaca, Lisboa (2017); CEAC residência artística em Vila Nova da Barquinha (2017). Vivem e trabalham em Lisboa.

Eva Oddo (Lisboa, 1980) Curadora. Licenciada em História de Arte e Russo pela Universidade de Glasgow (2005), tem um Mestrado em Culture, Criticism and Curation da Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design em Londres (2014). Fundadora e diretora da galeria A Montanha, Lisboa (Julho 2017 a Março 2020). Curadoria: Por que os peixes saltam por cima da superfície da água?, Oscar Holloway, Museu Geológico, Lisboa, Novembro 2017; Boninas, A.calpi, Museu Geológico, Lisboa, Março 2017; coletiva, A.calpi, Espaço AZ, Lisboa (Abril 2016); ciclo de filmes heist, Rooftop Cinema Graça, Lisboa (Maio-Julho 2015); CUT!, Old Operating Theatre, Londres (Outubro 2014); Eat, Drink, Print, Central Saint Martins, Londres (Abril 2014); fila’n’tropia, galeria Round the Corner, Lisboa (Julho 2012); ZAAT is Agora, Lisboa, parte da iniciativa internacional I Park Art (Maio 2012); Os Culturofagistas, Guimarães Capital da Cultura (Outubro-Dezembro 2011); Alfacinhas, evento inaugural do Centro das Artes Culinárias, Mercado de Santa Clara, Lisboa (Junho 2011); ZAAT Mostra, festival de artes audiovisuais, Lisboa (Outubro 2010); ZAAT Silent Disco, Lisboa (Julho 2010); assistente à curadoria da exposição sobre Tadeusz Kantor no Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich (2009). Coordenadora de arte do projeto editorial The Football Crónicas, Londres (2014). Textos: Objecto Anamórfico, texto para exposição individual de Hugo Bernardo (Março 2017); Coda, texto para exposição individual de Vasco Futscher (Dezembro 2015); Âbaco, texto para exposição individual de Ana Morgadinho (Outubro/Novembro 2015); Aqui não lanço âncora, texto para exposição individual de Ricardo Pires (Setembro 2015).

ENG

Oneiroikos  is an exhibition that brings together works by the artists Carlos Bunga, Diogo Costa and the pair Eduardo Fonseca e Silva and Francisca Valador, through the prism of the book The poetics of space (1958), by Gaston Bachelard. The works act as discreet worlds, that contain micro- and macrocosms, and that aim to explore and reflect the relation between interiority and exteriority, both physical and psychic, creating Bachelardian poetic images that are born out of the meeting between subjectivity and reality, between intimacy and the world.

Bachelard invites us to relate poetically to the spaces we live in; not only physically, functionally, and structurally, but also through our imagination. To inscribe our own intimacy onto the spaces we inhabit and frequent, and to create possibilities together. This intimacy requires a certain unguardedness, and all the artists in this exhibition openly show us their intimate and vulnerable imaginations and invite us to do the same. As Bachelard states, any lock can be disarmed with an adequate amount of violence, but truly disarming is the complete lack of locks, of limits and barriers, as happens in dreams.

The works (2019-2022) by Diogo Costa beckon us in. They are open spaces, maybe sceneries, imaginary environments, in which the sacredness of the border identified by Bachelard is put into practice: interior and exterior space meet not with hostility, but with permeability, exchanging places.

These spaces are abuzz: there is a Bachelardian harmony of opposites, relations and tensions between objects, friendly forms and melancholic separations, tenuous balances, parallel worlds, potential that, for now, seems invisible or impossible. These are spaces that are simultaneously material and oneiric, conducive to an exaggeration of associations as encouraged by Bachelard.

None of these spaces is clearly delineated, none of the relations between these objects is fixed. Each activation contains its own destruction (the egg, the candle), but also the opportunity for a transformative and/or reproductive continuum. We live of the same air as the candle, we consume and produce the same and, in this analogy is a call to a reactivation, to a re-visualisation, in the sense of reanimating the gaze and learning to see in an oneiric way, widening the symbology and possibility of seeing.

Diogo Costa’s works might remind us of a doll’s house, but here the rooms don’t have walls and the objects aren’t functional, which already widens the prospect of our being in the world; it is no longer restricted to social prescriptions, as might be the case with a doll’s house or with architectural models: the worlds that Costa creates are specific and singular, but they are not insular, since they allow us to cross the threshold with our imagination wide open.

In his video Construction (2002), Carlos Bunga also reverses the relation between exterior and interior, while, with a certain urgency and restlessness, he reformulates a miniature house, a rather conventional representation of one, which, to a degree, brings to mind the toys found in Kinder eggs or in McDonald’s Happy Meals. The artist’s hands take apart and glue back together, deconstruct and reconfigure, at times abortively, capturing the impermanence – as opposed to a finality - proposed by Bachelard , so that we may continue to project our dreams into the future, towards a horizon that is forever receding.

The artist discovers and activates the power of his hands and his vision, as he gains the courage to imagine and construct a home without feeling the need to subscribe to pre-existing models; he creates a poetic image and he is unafraid to live in impermanence, to fail, and to start over. In this way, Bunga draws a direct line between the dream and action.

In More space for another construction #13 (2007-2008), Bunga inscribes a structure bright with colour and form - a space possibly hard to identify apart from being his own -, onto the page of an architecture magazine. It isn’t clear exactly what the drawing covers but, from what remains unconcealed, we can glimpse what looks like a rationalist, functional, modernist space. The drawing is, to a certain extent, a graffiti and, like in the video and in Bunga’s more recent largescale works, the artist leaves his mark on dominant narratives, bringing to the surface not only his inner world, but also realities and histories that are often buried by said narratives. In this way, Bunga forcibly brings his intimacy to spaces that, a priori, don’t allow it.

Furthermore, just like Costa establishes constellations and layers of objects, and relations between them, Bunga represents a system of modular spaces that creates a prismatic collective of forms which alters as the eye glides over the drawing, thereby highlighting the space of intimacy as one of sharing. In fact, Bachelard also introduces us to the idea that inscribing our poetic images onto an outside world is a culturally collective exercise, as well as an individual act.

Shared intimacy and the collective poetic act are equally present in the work of the pair Eduardo Fonseca e Silva and Francisca Valador. In the sculptures (2022) that the artists present here, single socks gain form and solidity; such humble and indispensable objects become abstract to then be the target of our pareidolia and bring to mind…who knowns…a bunch of flowers…a lock…a snail shell…a vulva…an ear…hands or arms…a stone…once again an exaggeration of associations. These unpaired beings rise up delicately and appear to square us up with an ironic and cocky air, perhaps because, with their metamorphosis, they are now eye-to-eye with us, although, like a phantom limb, and remembering Costa’s melancholic separations, something seems to be missing. Are we their soulmates? The sculptures seem to be asking us, like sock puppets.

By confronting us, these images reflect the possibilities of our own being, but also remind us that, as Bachelard points out, the poetic image comes to us in solitude, in the absence of others.

Inasmuch as Bachelard, rightly, underlines how fundamental solitude is to creating a space for our imaginations to flourish, the works in this exhibition perhaps propose a more communal vision for our dreams, given that affection and sharing are constantly present, in addition to the connections between objects and images. Apart from Fonseca e Silva and Valador’s collaboration, Costa works with his father to produce his maquettes, and Bunga makes his the words of his “travel companion”, saying that his home isn’t a place but the people he loves[1]. Therefore, it is not only the intimacy of the house that prepares us to confront the world, as Bachelard teaches us, but sharing said intimacy with others, also because, through our dreams, the house becomes flexible and expandible.

Once more calling forward a meeting with intimacy, Fonseca e Silva and Valador’s miniature paintings (2022) are akin to peeping through a keyhole. Here, other mysteriously friendly forms occupy small, light, and delicate stages which are clearly placed in a wider context, thereby becoming intimately close: as if looking through a telescope or a microscope, we are now occupying the same space.

Like in the instances captured in Costa’s maquettes and in Bunga’s abrupt editing, Fonseca e Silva and Valador transport us to fleeting and entropic moments, which for Bachelard are the inception of the poetic image and the ecstasy of its novelty: a petal and a piece of burnt paper overlap gingerly; a salt crystal resting on top of a wetness is in danger of melting (or so it seems). Bachelard’s poetic image frees itself from the constraints of linear time, and, in miniaturization, time expands, and, in miniaturization and mystery, we are transported to friendly forms, phantom limbs, and soulmates of larger proportions…roses…bananas…blocks of cheese…icebergs.

In the very Bachelardian way in which equal attention is given to the micro and macro that is present in all the works in this exhibition, the miniature contains the infinity within us and the immensity of the universe. As Bachelard reminds us, large things emerge from small ones, and, in fact, the intense attention that unites these artists seems to turn them (and us) into children with a magnifying glass exploring the world as if for the first time.

In this exploration, in this exhibition, we encounter both familiar and strange images, commonplace objects that gain new life, and germinal poetic images still waiting to be understood, in a constant permeability between interior and exterior. “Being is round”, says Bachelard, and Fonseca e Silva describes his and Valador’s sculptures as ouroboros. For Bachelard distance is always present here, and the horizon is also in the centre, thereby inviting us to meet the world with an intimacy that is free and impermanent.

[1] Talk by Carlos Bunga at Fundação Carmona e Costa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ySf6_ZSU8

Opening
Thu 17th nov
6 to 8.30 p.m.

Carlos Bunga (Porto, 1976) studied at Escola Superior de Arte e Design in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. Lives and works near Barcelona. His process-oriented works are created in various formats: sculpture, painting, drawing, performance, video, and site-specific installations. Although often using simple and unpretentious materials, Bunga's work involves a highly developed degree of aesthetic concern and delicacy, as well as a conceptual complexity derived from the interrelationship between doing and undoing, between not doing and redoing, between the micro and the macro, between investigation and conclusion. Overcoming the division between sculpture and painting, Bunga's deceptively delicate works are characterized by an intense study of the combination of colour and materiality, while emphasizing the performative aspect of the creative act. He exhibits widely, with highlights including in: Palacio de Cristal – Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Secession, Vienna; Whitechapel Gallery; MOCA, Toronto; Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães; MAAT; Fundação Carmona e Costa; MACBA; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Fundação Serralves; Hammer Museum; and Miami Art Museum. He was invited to take part in the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015), the 29^th São Paulo Biennial (2010), the Lisbon Architecture Triennial (2010), the 14^th Carrara International Sculpture Biennial (2010) and Manifesta 5, San Sebastian (2004). He received the ArtPrize Grand Rapids, Michigan (2013) and was shortlisted for the Artes Mundi 6 Prize, Cardiff (2015). His work is part of important collections, such as: MOMA; Fundação Serralves; Hammer Museum; Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection; Pinacoteca de São Paulo; Museu Calouste Gulbenkian; and MACBA, among others.

Diogo Costa (1988) lives in Trafaria and works in Lisbon and Almada. He is a visual artist and an art teacher. He graduated in painting from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. He teaches drawing and sculpture in Nextart art school, in Lisbon. He has presented his work in solo and group shows and in artistic residencies, including: Uma Figura Semelhante, exhibition presented in his studio in Almada, selected by the Câmara Municipal de Almada for the Jovens Talentos 2021 award; Fenomenologias Ultraterrestres, curator: Inês Ferreira-Norman, Compostival / Matéria Cíclica, Peniche; Vir em Favor da Pedra, curators: Ana Rito and Hugo Barata, online exhibition, Umbigo Lab; Qual Paisagem, Sá da Costa Galeria, Lisbon; PANORAMA, curator: Adelaide Ginga, Le Consulat, Lisbon; Residência Artística na Casa-Animal – Organised by: MArt and Musa Paradisíaca. Fábrica da Pólvora de Vale de Milhaços, Eco-Museu-Municipal-do-Seixal, Corroios; A L ́Heure Du Dessin, curator: Martine Robin, Château de Servières, Marselha, Francce; I = II, curator: Ana Matos, Galeria das Salgadeiras, Lisbon; Face to face: The Transcendence of Arts in China and beyond, curator: António Quaresma, Reitoria UL, Lisbon. He has worked as a scenery painter for plays, including: Se Isto É Um Homem, scenography: Manuel Graça Dias and Egas José Vieira and O Romance da Raposa, scenography: António Lagarto, both produced by Companhia Teatro de Almada.
www.diogo-costa.net

Eduardo Fonseca e Silva (1993, Lisbon) and Francisca Valador (1993, Lisbon) studied painting at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon. They work together since 2016, while also maintaining their individual practices. Solo exhibitions: Subterrâneo, Museu Geológico de Lisboa (2018); Corda Bamba, Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa (2016). Group exhibitions: Depois do Banquete, Teatro Thalia, Lisbon (2022); Manta Ray, Matèria, Rome (2021); Dip me in the river, drop me in the water!, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon (2021); Chain Reaction #6: Las Palmas – Apofenia, Culturgest, Porto (2021); A Longa Sombra, Maus Hábitos, Porto (2021); Chain Reaction #6: Las Palmas – Apofenia, Fidelidade Arte, Lisbon (2020); Homework, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon (2020); CENTRAL ASIA: Presença Brilhante (collaboration with primeira desordem), Lisbon (2019); No dia seguinte está o agora, CAPC Círculo Sede, Coimbra (2018); The dog is very confused, Galeria FOCO, Lisbon (2018). Other projects:  Torno, Livriaria ZDB, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon (2021); Ceia, Mais Um project, Galeria 3+1 Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon (2019); Sermão, Casa-Animal de Musa Paradisíaca, Lisbon (2017); CEAC artistic residency in Vila Nova da Barquinha (2017). They live and work in Lisbon.

Eva Oddo (Lisbon, 1980) Curator. Graduated in History of Art and Russian from the University of Glasgow (2005), holds a Master’s in Culture, Criticism and Curation from Central Saint Martins, London (2014). Founder and director of A Montanha gallery, Lisbon (July 2017 to March 2020). Curator: Por que os peixes saltam por cima da superfície da água?, Oscar Holloway, Museu Geológico, Lisbon (2017); Boninas, A.calpi, Museu Geológico, Lisbon (2017); coletiva, A.calpi, Espaço AZ, Lisbon (2016); heist film cycle, Rooftop Cinema Graça, Lisbon (2015); CUT!, Old Operating Theatre, London (2014); Eat, Drink, Print, Central Saint Martins, London (2014); fila’n’tropia, galeria Round the Corner, Lisbon (2012); ZAAT is Agora, Lisbon, part of the international initiative I Park Art (2012); Os Culturofagistas, Guimarães Capital da Cultura (2011); Alfacinhas, inaugural event of Centro das Artes Culinárias, Mercado de Santa Clara, Lisbon (2011); ZAAT Mostra, festival de artes audiovisuais, Lisbon (2010); ZAAT Silent Disco, Lisbon (2010); curating assistant of the exhibition on Tadeusz Kantor at the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts, Norwich (2009). Art coordinator of the editorial project The Football Crónicas, London (2014). Texts: Objecto Anamórfico, for the exhibition by Hugo Bernardo (2017); Coda, for the exhibition by Vasco Futscher (2015); Âbaco, for the exhibition by Ana Morgadinho (2015); Aqui não lanço âncora, for the exhibition by Ricardo Pires (2015). She lives in Liverpool.