Encontros da Imagem
Encontros da Imagem

Por que termina o corpo na pele?

Galeria do Paço – UMinho

Largo do Paço s/n
Monday→Saturday: 10am–6pm

Bodies that speak

In the portrait, the pose touches the drama. When posing, we feel like saying, here I am, here is who I am, to a gaze that traverses the skin, that penetrates the flesh, that reaches a depth in the body. However, in the rapture or awareness of this wound, we say, after all, behold me, behold who I am before you, an affectation of the body, a display of another order that dwells in us.

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What kind of drama are we talking about when we talk about a portrait? The pose is not an artificial excess; it is an intentional excess, it is the narrative action in which we reveal our subjectivity, and the portrait, is opening a place between its exteriority and our interiority, exposes the pose, obeys less to representation and more to presentation. The pose tells us that our body does not end in the skin; rather, it is an instrument of communication: here I am, in front of you.

Carried out as part of an artistic residency by invitation of the organisation of the Festival Encontros da Imagem, Pauliana Valente Pimentel's series of portraits of young people living in Braga certifies the authenticity of presence. In a way, we can consider that the subtlety of her photographs preserves these bodies as individuals, insofar as the genuineness of the pose prevents the photographic gesture from cutting out livingness, from turning these bodies into spectres. These bodies speak.

In this sense, Pauliana Valente Pimentel transforms not only the experience of the exhibition but also our role as spectators. Through her gesture, these bodies, which surround us, which speak to us, enjoin us to abandon the distant place of contemplation. Through the portrait, they demand to be observed as presences, to be seen in their subjectivity. They summon us to action, to the interrelation through the work of art. The experience of the exhibition is the happening of this singularity, of our creation and re-creation of senses.

Ricardo Escarduça

Pauliana Valente Pimentel

1975. Lisbon. As a visual artist, Pauliana has held regular exhibitions since 1999, in several European countries - Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, Greece, but also outside Europe, in the USA, China, Tukey and Africa (Marrocos, Cabo Verde). In 2005, she participated in the photography course “Criatividade e Criação Artística” by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She was part of the collective (Kameraphoto) from 2006 until its extinction in 2014. Paulia is a photography teacher. In 2009 she published her first authors book “VOL I” (Pierre von Kleist), “Caucase, Souvenirs de Voyage” (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian) in 2011, in 2018 “Quel Pedra” (Camera Infinita), in 2019 “Narcisismo das Pequenas Diferenças” (Arquivo Municipal da Câmara de Lisboa) and in  2021 "Rub Al`Khali (Empty Quarter)" by  Kioskzine. Pauliana is also a movie director "Diz-se que Portugal é um bom país para se viver", 40 min, Portugal 2011; "Jovens de Atenas ", 13 min. Athens, Greece, 2012, "Entre Nous", 51 min. Portugal, France, 2014, "Quel Pedra", 3min, loop, S. Vicente, Cabo Verde, 2014; "Al Bidayer", 12min, loop, Emirados Arabes Unidos, 2017. In 2015 she received the award “Prémio de Artes Visuais” by Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores. In 2016 she was nominated for the
Prémio NOVO BANCO Photo. During 5 years she was represented by the Galeria 3 + 1 Arte Contemporânea and 7 years by Galeria das Salgadeiras in Lisbon. At the moment she is represented by Galeria Cisterna in Lisbon and collaborates with international galleries. Part of her work belongs to private and institutional collections, such has Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Partex, EDP Foundation, Maat, Novo Banco and Coleção do Estado Português.

http://www.paulianavalentepimentel.com/

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