GUEST OF HONOUR ����
© Luís Vasconcelos - Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos
JOANA VASCONCELOS, OR RE-SENSITISED ART
In the world of contemporary art, the works of Joana Vasconcelos stand out for their desire for aestheticization that contrasts radically with a predominant production giving the impression of having chosen, as its primary rule, to bury the very notion of beauty and seeming to find most of its inspiration in the spirit of transgression and deconstruction of the principles defining a work of art. This is not the case in the works of Joana Vasconcelos, where the seduction of art plays a full part, in a beauty that is both convulsive and playful, feminised and joyful, reflexive and sensory and where art deeply retains its primary value of craftsmanship and concern for perfection. The dimension, specific to the meticulous work of the craftsman, of being a bearer of know-how and meaning and of producing a creation that is not only a decorative 12
game or a spectacle ready to be consumed but, translates as an approach intended to speak of today’s world and to express in a poetic and enchanted way, its anxieties and desires, addictions and dreams, heaviness and grace. It is a deeply rooted work, moreover, keeping links with its home port – Portugal, this small country from which seafarers and captains set off on long travels to discover a new world – woven by the collective and memorial adventure of an entire people. Roots that are the opposite of a withdrawal into oneself. The “Portugalness” of the works of Joana Vasconcelos is in fact an openness to the world, which is symbolised in a very singular way, giving her creation a universality that today makes her a renowned artist, whose very object is the texture of the world.