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La vie invisible- 12 artistes
23 April to 17 July
With/ Avec les œuvres de : Ana Janeiro, Bárbara Fonte, Brígida Mendes, Ção Pestana, Carla Cabanas, Graça Sarsfield, Júlia Ventura, Manuela Marques, Margarida Paiva, Rita Barros, Rita Castro Neves et São Trindade.
Curated by/ Commissaire invitée : Raquel Guerra
In the last decades of the 20th century, gender studies mainly focused on artistic practices and theories imagined and created by women. Numerous women authors and artists studied in depth and developed on questions that established their intentions and reflected their beliefs. However their body of work, ideas and thoughts are still not widely known. In this context - and curious about the Portuguese scene - the CPIF invited Raquel Guerra* to consider the question. The resulting exhibition, The Invisible Life (whose title was inspired by “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” by Brazilian author Martha Batalha) presents the work of twelve Portuguese women artists from different generations who use photography in their practice and work with images in the widest sense of the term.
interact - Revista Online de Arte, Cultura e Tecnologia
Álbum Índia Portuguesa 1951-1961
O vídeo, apresentado na revista online interact, é uma revisitação a este projecto, e em particular ao livro (publicado em 2017). O folhear do livro, ao som da leitura das cartas, permite uma “viagem” àquela que foi a experiência da minha avó, durante este período da sua vida. O intercalar dos acontecimentos pessoais, juntamente com os acontecimentos históricos, é também o que permite uma contextualização destes episódios.
The Archive is Present- Performing a Story of Dictatorship Through the Family Album
MEMBRANA JOURNAL
MASTER VOL. 5, NO. 22020
This essay describes an investigation into a family photographic archive that belonged to my grandparents and represent a period in Portugal’s past (1940–1975) scarred by one of the longest dictatorships in history. The research carries out an ‘iconographic’ analysis of the photographs in the family albums and on how these were influenced by the consistent and highly visual propaganda of the New State regime (1933–1974). It demonstrates how the iconography of this visual propaganda embedded itself into the family album, specifically regarding its propaganda strategy and its ideology and politics towards women. Later these findings were explored through performance photography, creating a photographic body of work. Focusing mostly on the figure of my grandmother and exploring pose and gesture, which were subsequently re-performed for the camera. The information contained within the archive images is re-written within the performance images.
Keywords: archive, dictatorship, photography and performative, visual propaganda, visualization of the role of women
Participation in the Photography and History International conference
Performing the family album: photographic archives
Funchal – Madeira Island | 15 – 17 Dec. 2021
This paper describes the process developed to interpret archives through performance photography. It proposes to establish possible methods for contemporary visual interpretations of archives. The visual work presented investigates family photographic archives and makes interpretations of them with performance photography. The photographic albums of two families, my mother and father’s parents, represent a period in Portugal’s past (1940-1975) scarred by one of the longest dictatorships in history. The photographic work is based on an analysis of the photographs in the family albums from both families. Focusing specifically on the images of my two grandmothers, as representative of two women’s lives during this historical period. Both women lived under the same dictatorial regime, but one living in mainland Portugal and the other in the Portuguese overseas territories (India, 1951-61 and Mozambique 1962-75). Each album demonstrates specific cultural differences: the specificity of their diverse settings results in different cultural images. Ultimately, with the end of the regime, these images are inherited in the identity of women in Portugal to this day, including my own.
Photography was key to the regime’s propaganda and one of the most widely used tools to spread the ideals of the New State and of the politics of the spirit. This paper argues that this aesthetic exists in the family album, which was permeable to its influence.
During this investigation elements of the propaganda imagery of the dictatorship surfaced, unravelling the specificity of these two women within the iconography of the regime. This paper will not only describe the method used to interpret these archives, but also the findings of such a controversial time in the history of 20th century European dictatorial regimes.
The work presented in this paper is a performative method of interpreting or enacting these archives. This paper will describe in detail how performance photography can be used as a practice method for the critical interpretation of archives. Ultimately establishing the use of performance as an effective method for understanding and investigating archives which are eventually representative of life within a historical period.