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Choices

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The exhibition by the scenic artist, Margarida Menezes, emerges as the conclusion of the "site-specific" process of searching for the physical or scenographic space of Miguel Leitão Jardim's photography and text book "Escolhas", which was based on the construction of an installation with the same title on display in the noble salon of the Baltasar Dias Municipal Theater. The performance was based on the same method and proposed the site exploration in one of the areas of the installation. Time and light, the house and the words were the tools through which the theme of "non-choices" was developed, that is, what was not selected to integrate the book and the installation is articulated in the theme of the choices as a scouring of photographic material intrinsic to the creative process.

How does this artistic installation entitled "Choices" arise?
Margarida Menezes: The installation results from the release of Miguel Leitão Jardim's book. He told me about the exhibition of photographs and I challenged him with the project as a way of disseminating the contents, why not try the physical space of this work? And that's what we did. Basically, we studied the book at the end and searched for the physical space and object, the time and the dynamics of the images, that is, the relation between the text and the photograph, and this gave us a labyrinth, a space with several structures and an almost literary, photographic and plastic installation.

Miguel Leitão Jardim: The starting point was a series of my trips in museum spaces. Especially Serralves, in Porto and the Mudas, in Madeira and unlike other works this came from some of these photographs that I did and that motivated me to continue a series that I realized I had, to increase it and give it life. The framing that emerged results from the various authors who were invited to write about the various images that were allied to this project.

Was it an early idea for the photographic work to invite authors? Or was it together?
MLJ: The initial idea was mine and I invited several authors to this project. In the book there is not only prose, there is also poetry.

Maragarida, why a maze?
MM: The labyrinth has to do with some photographies of the book and what is done is to give people the choice of the route, like the routes of life, our choices and this was our theme for the installation. Based on this there is also a performance, based on choice and not choice. The images that were not selected for this exhibition will then be taken, pages 32 and 33 that do not exist in the work and that in this case has to do with our choices, what is left out and this is what I will enjoy for the performance what am I going to do.

What was the guiding principle in terms of images?
MM: These were Miguel's choices, that is, his work was to select a photographic series and invite authors to write directly for each photograph. My work was now to get all the things he did not take to analyze for performance.

Why did you consider this space in the Baltazar Dias theater that has nothing to do with the images and your installation?
MM: This room is a beautiful space and we assume the classic as neutral, that is, the entire structure of the theater, like the walls, we decided not to use them for installation. Therefore, the project is limited to the panels and the interior of the labyrinth that was created by us. The most relevant question is how did space influence? How do we decide that space is not a choice? Its characteristics are not so, so the performance I will do called page 32 and 33, focuses on this, about space time, light, resonance, then it will be an interpretation in a specific area, not light, was an unselected zone and therefore the performance will be carried out in such a way that all the characteristics of the space are assimilated.

Many of the facilities are almost rough.
MM: Yes, the purpose of the installation is to be able to show an artistic product with the minimum of possible resources and then the idea of "low budget" comes in, we tried to create all parts of the installation, everything that could be built by us, rather than being ordered through a graphic designer. The goal is to captivate the sensitivity to art and encourage artistic creation, why? Because my area is more scenic, it's the stage, so my vision of an installation is to create a scenario that the book suggests to me. That's my perspective as a performer. As I am not a plastic artist, the idea was to combine the photographs and texts, but materialize them in space. For me it is more a construction of a scenario, it is an installation, because it is not a show, or a play, being that the performance will have no scenery, it is the space itself.

What about cement blocks?
MM: They are there for two reasons, they symbolize the foundations and the strength that a house has comes from it, of the bricks. The book makes this reference of the house, of space, hence the form of the work is square. The House is
built with bricks and this represents us, our artistic impetus that places the blocks and holds them together. These pieces are from a puzzle, or from a maze, so the brick represents the building of foundations that are at the base of the artistic impetus, but also represent the choosing to stay, to be an immovable, heavy and a rustic object.

Have you also tried to create with this labyrinth much interactivity with the public? MM: The intention is exactly this, to involve the public in the art of creation. People can touch the pins and run the risk of getting hurt. Whether or not they want to enter a dark room that is lit up with an intermittent flash. They can smell or even bite a chair made of apples, but eventually they have to come up and smell them to read the text, the purpose is to use the nose. They have to turn, or dance around a column to read the poem about the infinite, because that is my idea of the eternal. There are several pieces that have to be touched, tucked away to allow sensitivity on a photograph and it is necessary to even use the mirror to read a text. The goal is to create a closer bond with the audience, as a stage artist I have a hard time creating this link, because when we are on stage and even if it is in the middle of an audience there are barriers that are difficult to overcome, the presence of an actor, a dancer, or performer, at the same time restricts, or constrains a certain connection with the audience. This installation allows a visitor to be intertwined with the artistic object, so that it touches, feels, enters the space, on the stage and this, as a rule, is not accessible.

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