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agonia no jardim [“agony in the garden”] marks bonneville’s debut in the world of ceramics—a practice he began after quitting his trajectory in the performing arts. this exhibition sets the beginning of the serial project animais paisanges e santos [“animals landscapes and saints”], which investigates the lives and legacies of different saints, while exploring the intersections between the study of mysticism, the relations between human and non-human animals, and the tensions between civilization and nature.
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“love brought forth the world, friendship will bring it forth again.” — hölderlin, hyperion; or, the hermit in greece
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constantly seeking to enlarge his vocabulary beyond the expected, beyond what he was taught, bonneville seeks not to restrain language, allowing it to create new worlds. for him, obligation and imagination are on opposite sides. he took up ceramics out of sheer interest and curiosity, with no purpose beyond the practice itself. this brought him here, without his planning it. it was easy. it happened. he allowed himself to become available again to the sensible world, to matter—and matter answered. he reopened to the vast realm of the erotic.
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in the agony in the garden episode, christ experiences a moment of extreme vulnerability. he knows what awaits him—prison, violence, abandonment—and he asks his friends to stay awake with him. this plea is in truth an appeal to them to be present and comfort him—friendship is presented as companionship in suffering. he doesn’t ask them to save him nor to do anything heroic—he simply asks them to be there. even so, they fall asleep. this failure is not a betrayal, but rather a human weakness: it is difficult to truly accompany the suffering of others. it is difficult to simply be there when there are no words, no solutions, no easy promises.
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both realities—friendship in hard times and the discovery of new possibilities not entailing a sacrifice—are part of agonia no jardim. in moments when everything becomes unbearable, some stay. not to offer a way out, but to watch, to listen, to witness. then there’s the time when nothing is to be expected anymore. and it is in this very moment that one begins anew. the gesture serves no purpose but its own—the pleasure of doing without asking permission. without planning. without expecting to go back. this exhibition begins from that place: where the end of a path makes way for a different kind of presence—less directed and, perhaps for this very reason, more alive.
For any additional information regarding the pieces, you may contact the artist directly through his email address: office@miguelbonneville.com
Acknowledgments: ó cerâmica, livraria aberta, o lugar do meio, teatro do silêncio, maria teresa oliveira, ricardo costa, sofia dinger.