Pedro Calapez

Portuguese contemporary artist

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Branchings

Rosalux - Berlin

20/04/2013 - 05/05/2013

[ENG]

Reclining tree

A tree falls in the forest. No longer do the intertwining branches point to the luminous skies. Growth has ceased; now the branches lie on the ground. An evening breeze announces its presence and the wind, which infiltrates woods at these calm and silent moments, brings new life to the branches.

We see the leaves flutter, as if they would reach to the sun again. Countless untidy and broken branches, with crushed leaves, sticky with sap, create negative-light patterns and simulate respiration. The reclining tree trembles in an uncontrolled movement, a last breath-faking life, a last manifestation of its will to life. An intense void remains as the air passes through.

Maria Zambrano wrote*: “What you have to do first when you breathe is inhale, a blow that is like a sigh, and no matter how often you exhale afterwards, something of that first inspiration remains to feed the subtle fire that it lighted … And in imitation of that centre of all life and being, breathing regulates itself by its own rhythm — one of the countless rhythms that constitute the sphere of the living being.. But the being which is forced to exist as an individual will find itself, on the one hand, in a certain kind of void, and on the other, in danger of being unable to breath; it will be caught between over-abundance and the void.” (free translation)

*in Claros del bosque (1977)

Pedro Calapez

 

[PT]

Árvore jacente

Caída está a árvore na floresta. Os ramos entrelaçaram-se e não apontam já o caminho da luz. O seu crescimento foi interrompido e  ramos jazem agora no solo. Mas no passar do vento da tarde, a brisa, que se infiltra na floresta naqueles momentos de silêncio e quietude, faz os ramos nova vida ganhar, revelando-se nos  pequenos movimentos a vontade de se levantar e de novo crescer. Inúmeros ramos misturados, partidos, com folhas amassadas na humidade da seiva, desenham contornos em contra-luz e propõem uma simulada respiração. Agita-se a árvore jacente num incontrolado fazer/desfazer, num último respirar, simulando a vida que nos mantém vivos. Sobra um intenso vazio no ar que por aqui passa.

Maria Zambrano diz-nos: “O que primeiro tem que fazer-se ao respirar tem de ser a inspiração, sopro que se dá num suspiro, pois em cada expiração algo desse primeiro alento recebido permanece a alimentar o fogo subtil que acendeu. (…) E à imagem e imitação desse centro da vida e do ser, o respirar regula-se com o seu próprio ritmo, dentro dos inumeráveis ritmos que formam a esfera do ser vivente. Mas o ser, obrigado a ser individualmente, ficará num certo vazio de uma parte e arriscado a não poder respirar de outra, entre a abundância excessiva e o vazio”. (in Clareiras do Bosque, ed. Relógio d’Água)

Pedro Calapez

Pedro Calapez

Pedro Calapez, Lisbon based artist, began taking part in exhibitions in the seventies (and hasn't stopped since...) About Pedro

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