Drawings | Self-portraits
In the first stage of the creative process, as happened in earlier projects, I come across materials as I walk or wander about. On these exploratory paths, materials stand out—cards, sheets of paper, paint, pens, and other materials thrown in the garbage or left outside shops and warehouses. They are assembled as fragments of a urban landscape that is visible, yet often overlooked, marginalized, or deemed undesirable.
These materials constitute the basis for creation. For sketching, I use two pencils that I got from my father, whose trade is joinery. It’s the traditional red, rectangular-shaped pencil, widely used in workshops and construction, known as carpenter pencil. In my creative process, I also handled a sewing machine, reusing threads and other materials, like paint or pens, also found at the joiner’s workshop or among discarded things. Once in my room, my most intimate space, the sketches prompt reflection on self-representation. Here, I see my body inscribed on the lines and shapes. Physical presence reveals itself not only in action or in a gesture, but also in the traces beyond the body’s own outlines. Each drawing thus materializes as both a source and an extension of that presence, a certain way of capturing it that oscillates between corporeality and its absence—resting in an “in-between”. A naked body, laid bare. Finally, I draw a continuous, uninterrupted line to logically connect all these elements to one another. This stroke is constantly unfolding, as if flowing rhythmically, pulsating. The line, even though it must eventually come to an end and break, reveals in its path a potentially infinite circularity, one that redefines itself at each turn—a tension between permanence and transformation. — Flávio Rodrigues
Cérebro, olhos, mãos e papel
[“Brain, eyes, hands and paper”]
What is this capacity of the body that takes what we observe and puts it on a sheet of paper? I’m talking about the body transmuting itself into a drawing, in an intricate fusion between eyes, hands and paper. It’s like the development of a mental muscle that mysteriously extends down the arm, reaches the hand and travels across the paper. It turns into movement and dynamism. There are people in the world of performing arts who have been drawing even before they started using their bodies as tools. These exhibitions reveal three different ways of using mental muscles, each with its own identity and beauty. Drawing is a physical act that requires time, memory, focus, practice, will, endurance and freedom. It’s like dancing. In this second edition, drawing turns into action with Flávio Rodrigues, into sculpture with Miguel Bonneville, and into movement with Ana Caetano. ― Carlota Lagido