kickflip

[EN]

On “Kickflip”, Pedro Calapez summons the sub-culture of urban radical sports, like skateboarding, to analyze the articulation between shape, color and built space, as well as to speculate about the balance among the power of images with the representations of the world.

The show includes painting and sculpture, exhibiting four specifically done works and two others shown for the first time in Lisbon. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that includes an essay of the commissary and reproductions not only of the shown works but as well studio views, putting Calapez’s practice on a contextual view.

On Calapez’s Framework:

(excerpt from catalog text by curator Miguel Amado): “on the one hand the heraldic and the signifying complexity associated to it; on the other hand, geography and territory, words with a military stamp that evoke issues such as imperialism and the post-colonial view of the world.

Attached to the wall as a floating device, and laid out according to a pre-determined diagram, the works reflect each other both through the patterns that they configure and the chromatic singularity they show, as well as through the theoretical references they convoke. With an interpretational scheme governed by retro design and atmospheres of a utopian nature, along with varied ideological landscapes, these works encapsulate the ties woven by Calapez between his artistic practice and pressing subject matters of today.”

[PT]

Sobre a estrutura do trabalho:

(Excerto do texto do catálogo, pelo curador Miguel Amado): “por um lado, a heráldica e a complexidade sígnica a si associada; por outro, a geografia e o território, palavras com cunho político-militar que evocam problemáticas como o imperialismo e a visão do mundo pós-colonial.

Fixadas à parede de modo “flutuante” e dispostas segundo um diagrama pré-determinado, as obras ecoam-se mutuamente, seja pelos padrões que configuram e a singularidade cromática que manifestam, seja pelas referências teóricas  que convocam. Com uma malha interpretativa balizada pelo design retro e atmosferas de cariz utópico, a par de quadros ideológicos variados, estas obras sintetizam os laços tecidos por Calapez entre a sua prática artística e tópicos prementes da actualidade.”