Elsa Sahal, chorégraphe du corps reconstitué Camille Morineau
Untitled | Sem título, 1996 Letraset on paper 33 x 44 cm | 12⅝ x 17⅜ in
In a time like the present, dominated by the vertiginous super-production of images in consonance with the frenzied rhythm of electromagnetic waves that are swamping the planet, today’s art is still capable of producing images that offer resistance to the chaotic systems for representing our globalised society. This is, however, not an easy task and few examples go against the prevailing current, in this way distinguishing themselves from images directed towards immediate consumption or towards the manipulation of information. Indeed, the continuous flood of images that we receive from all sides provokes a kind of numbness that inhibits both the exercise of reflection and the type of representation that, in other moments of history, saw the world as an enigma. The Earth has become smaller today and it would appear that enigma has disappeared or, at least faded away in the midst of a blinding clarity that, paradoxically, has led to the greatest darkness of all. Conceived in the urgent context of the communication of information, a good part of the images that circulate around our globalised society are considered to be a direct reflection of the universe of things. However, the correspondences that they establish with their real-life surroundings are flattering, less truthful and they therefore decrease the complexity of what is real through their calculated perspective and quest for immediate effects. Reality nowadays, as it is frequently transmitted to us, is losing the tension of the energy that exists beyond what is evident and comfortably obtainable, preferring to be situated in the field of literalness, of easy-reading. Reality is presented to us as being more and more dispersed, and more diluted as far as the richness of its true condition is concerned. The imaginary, however, requires more than a passing gaze and calls for the capacity to establish relationships that highlight the invisible framework holding together everything that defines our existence, including both the familiar and the unknown. These issues, which have an impact on the climate in which artistic production is developed, can be applied to a consideration of José Damasceno’s work. His art offers a good example of how to approach the futility of so many visual representations that limit the possibilities between what is real and what is imaginary. Damasceno belongs to that class of creators who conceive their work as a means to explore the unknown, the enigma that things enclose. He is interested in following what is partial until he reaches what is general, where everything becomes connected; in widening one’s gaze beyond habits that do not enrich our perception; in drawing out new possibilities from what the
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Elsa Sahal, chorégraphe du corps reconstitué Camille Morineau
Untitled | Sem título, 1996 Letraset on paper 33 x 44 cm | 12⅝ x 17⅜ in
In a time like the present, dominated by the vertiginous super-production of images in consonance with the frenzied rhythm of electromagnetic waves that are swamping the planet, today’s art is still capable of producing images that offer resistance to the chaotic systems for representing our globalised society. This is, however, not an easy task and few examples go against the prevailing current, in this way distinguishing themselves from images directed towards immediate consumption or towards the manipulation of information. Indeed, the continuous flood of images that we receive from all sides provokes a kind of numbness that inhibits both the exercise of reflection and the type of representation that, in other moments of history, saw the world as an enigma. The Earth has become smaller today and it would appear that enigma has disappeared or, at least faded away in the midst of a blinding clarity that, paradoxically, has led to the greatest darkness of all. Conceived in the urgent context of the communication of information, a good part of the images that circulate around our globalised society are considered to be a direct reflection of the universe of things. However, the correspondences that they establish with their real-life surroundings are flattering, less truthful and they therefore decrease the complexity of what is real through their calculated perspective and quest for immediate effects. Reality nowadays, as it is frequently transmitted to us, is losing the tension of the energy that exists beyond what is evident and comfortably obtainable, preferring to be situated in the field of literalness, of easy-reading. Reality is presented to us as being more and more dispersed, and more diluted as far as the richness of its true condition is concerned. The imaginary, however, requires more than a passing gaze and calls for the capacity to establish relationships that highlight the invisible framework holding together everything that defines our existence, including both the familiar and the unknown. These issues, which have an impact on the climate in which artistic production is developed, can be applied to a consideration of José Damasceno’s work. His art offers a good example of how to approach the futility of so many visual representations that limit the possibilities between what is real and what is imaginary. Damasceno belongs to that class of creators who conceive their work as a means to explore the unknown, the enigma that things enclose. He is interested in following what is partial until he reaches what is general, where everything becomes connected; in widening one’s gaze beyond habits that do not enrich our perception; in drawing out new possibilities from what the
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object of knowledge can offer. In this way he goes beyond the paths of conventional perceptive logic in order to produce a poetic art that combines thought and imagination together with freedom. His pursuit is the widening of not only the sensorial sphere, but also of the scope where ideas and concepts are developed. In his work, Damasceno continuously enquires into the nature of the materials and objects that he uses. He questions the correspondences and divergences that can exist between them, giving way to unusual representations and images that are characterised by their dynamic transmission of an energy capable of irradiating itself to the observant spectator, who is required to demonstrate a receptive attitude both in the mental as well as in the sensorial sphere. As Goethe rightly stated in his Maxims and Reflections (1833): ‘The Beautiful is a manifestation of secret laws of nature, which, without its presence, would never have been revealed.’1 Damasceno is not seduced by those types of obvious images, so frequent in today’s art scene, which glide along as fragments of a whole that is impossible to put together because the idea that they stem from never aimed to establish relations with the context that gave them their reason to be. In his work as a sculptor, he uses the multiple objects that make up these relations in order to put them into contact with one another, physically and conceptually, appealing in this way to the notion of unity from diversity, where everything ends up embedded together and where enigma plays an important role. For while Damasceno’s work pursues meaning, at the same time it is aware of being surrounded by a wide realm of shadows that resist interpretation. As Jung said:
When I come to think about it, nothing has any meaning, for when there was nobody to think, there was nobody to interpret what happened. Interpretations are only for those who don’t understand; it is only the things we don’t understand that have any meaning. Man woke up in a world he did not understand, and that is why he tries to interpret it. And in that pursuit for meaning, Damasceno is open both to random discovery and to what contemplation reveals to him. It is not unusual for the governing idea of his work, always open, to take shape little by little as a result of a discovery of a concrete object that incites ownership without him being aware of the threads of sense that it will generate in the work. Damasceno does not hurry; he knows that the working process can be slow and, for that reason, he does not wage a battle against time that would disrupt the result of his work. His aim is to build an image, looking for that sense of meaning that is always in permanent flight, or to hear – and even extend – the echoes of an object or drawing. Beyond the mere visual quality of immediate consumption that we often find in contemporary art, Damasceno emphasises the need for a slower approach towards the artistic object, since for him, perception, as Rudolf Arnheim stated, is a phenomenon closely linked to cognition. As the German philosopher wrote: ‘There is basically no difference between what happens when a person looks at the world directly and what happens when he/she closes his/her eyes to think.’3 This is also the case when contemplating a true work of art. It is not possible to establish a dissociation in the spectator between the exercise of the senses – the sensorial sphere – and the activity of thought – the mental or intellectual sphere – however frequently the perceptive faculty is interrupted in this accelerated world, however aborted its numerous possibilities of widening our comprehension. To perceive things in an adequate way requires, therefore, composure and attention in a cognitive process incompatible with a passive attitude and with the distracting interferences of every kind that exist in our society of advanced technology.
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object of knowledge can offer. In this way he goes beyond the paths of conventional perceptive logic in order to produce a poetic art that combines thought and imagination together with freedom. His pursuit is the widening of not only the sensorial sphere, but also of the scope where ideas and concepts are developed. In his work, Damasceno continuously enquires into the nature of the materials and objects that he uses. He questions the correspondences and divergences that can exist between them, giving way to unusual representations and images that are characterised by their dynamic transmission of an energy capable of irradiating itself to the observant spectator, who is required to demonstrate a receptive attitude both in the mental as well as in the sensorial sphere. As Goethe rightly stated in his Maxims and Reflections (1833): ‘The Beautiful is a manifestation of secret laws of nature, which, without its presence, would never have been revealed.’1 Damasceno is not seduced by those types of obvious images, so frequent in today’s art scene, which glide along as fragments of a whole that is impossible to put together because the idea that they stem from never aimed to establish relations with the context that gave them their reason to be. In his work as a sculptor, he uses the multiple objects that make up these relations in order to put them into contact with one another, physically and conceptually, appealing in this way to the notion of unity from diversity, where everything ends up embedded together and where enigma plays an important role. For while Damasceno’s work pursues meaning, at the same time it is aware of being surrounded by a wide realm of shadows that resist interpretation. As Jung said:
When I come to think about it, nothing has any meaning, for when there was nobody to think, there was nobody to interpret what happened. Interpretations are only for those who don’t understand; it is only the things we don’t understand that have any meaning. Man woke up in a world he did not understand, and that is why he tries to interpret it. And in that pursuit for meaning, Damasceno is open both to random discovery and to what contemplation reveals to him. It is not unusual for the governing idea of his work, always open, to take shape little by little as a result of a discovery of a concrete object that incites ownership without him being aware of the threads of sense that it will generate in the work. Damasceno does not hurry; he knows that the working process can be slow and, for that reason, he does not wage a battle against time that would disrupt the result of his work. His aim is to build an image, looking for that sense of meaning that is always in permanent flight, or to hear – and even extend – the echoes of an object or drawing. Beyond the mere visual quality of immediate consumption that we often find in contemporary art, Damasceno emphasises the need for a slower approach towards the artistic object, since for him, perception, as Rudolf Arnheim stated, is a phenomenon closely linked to cognition. As the German philosopher wrote: ‘There is basically no difference between what happens when a person looks at the world directly and what happens when he/she closes his/her eyes to think.’3 This is also the case when contemplating a true work of art. It is not possible to establish a dissociation in the spectator between the exercise of the senses – the sensorial sphere – and the activity of thought – the mental or intellectual sphere – however frequently the perceptive faculty is interrupted in this accelerated world, however aborted its numerous possibilities of widening our comprehension. To perceive things in an adequate way requires, therefore, composure and attention in a cognitive process incompatible with a passive attitude and with the distracting interferences of every kind that exist in our society of advanced technology.
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Two Studies on a Lost Dimension | Dois estudos sobre uma dimensão perdida, 1996 Soap, iron and elastic bands Dimensions variable Fundação Nacional de Arte (Funarte), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Two Studies on a Lost Dimension | Dois estudos sobre uma dimensão perdida, 1996 Soap, iron and elastic bands Dimensions variable Fundação Nacional de Arte (Funarte), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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The Following Omen (Experiment About the Visibility of a Dynamic Substance) | O presságio seguinte (experiência sobre a visibilidade de uma substância dinâmica), 1997 Mannequin, glass vitrine, cloth and thread 2.8 x 7 x 2.9 m | 9 x 23 x 8 ft 12
The Following Omen (Experiment About the Visibility of a Dynamic Substance) | O presságio seguinte (experiência sobre a visibilidade de uma substância dinâmica), 1997 Mannequin, glass vitrine, cloth and thread 2.8 x 7 x 2.9 m | 9 x 23 x 8 ft 12
Organograma, 2008 45 light boxes Dimensions variable Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofĂa, Madrid, Spain
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Organograma, 2008 45 light boxes Dimensions variable Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofĂa, Madrid, Spain
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