How a professional does faces these catastrophic situations either by nature, for human intervention?
Octavio Passos: The experience is a bit complicated as you may imagine. I have served as a professional witness and this is my role. My photos are proof of what happens on the ground, either by the hand of man, either by natural causes. I have a serious difficulty in analyzing these incidents because they are outbreaks that start at night and cannot have a natural cause, and are cause by people that should be severely penalized. Obviously it is very difficult to know who started the fires; the police have a big job ahead to try to find out who these arsonists are. My job is to show it to people, I am a photojournalist and my aim is to show what happens in my country.
Let's talk about the pictures, you did an overlay of the photos, at first capture the tragedy itself and then have the post- accident. You have been to these places later?
OP: Exactly. In this exhibition I did first the photograph of the event itself, when everything was on fire, later viewing the images on the computer I did an analysis of what was photographed and tried to return to the same areas in order to obtain a picture of how this space was. The result is obvious, it is very bad. I try always to humanize the picture, to really demonstrate the losses, what happened.
Why you decided to put pictures of the fire in color and post-fire in black and white?
OP: That was a decision also a bit complicated. As I wanted to create a sequence of images , before and after , I decided to highlight the photos that would be the after in black and white for the drama and because I love of this kind of images, the fire and the action was highlight in color, the oranges, the blues , because the scenario is at night.
How interpreted the idea for this exhibition?
Pedro Berenguer: First thought on the issue of home, loss of the intimate, protector space. This was the starting point. The confrontation between the weather and the home, the great rituality of the storm and then the home. After a number of repeated images that are the image of the house, the flowers of a tropical island that is sold out and then we have the people, the places, how they lost their houses.
It's a story that you are telling?
PB: Yes, through a set of drawings 11 on watercolor paper, the technique is crayons with acrylic paint on top. There incisions on paper, cuts, seams, decals and embroidery happen, because I was interested in working on this material more aggressively than usual.
Why red?
PB: Gives it mobility, is also a more intense shade, a wound. The title of this work is "the place where dwell(ed) the silence " is a work of Rilke, who speaks of the protected space where silence dwells, hence the citations entered in the works, and that here the weather almost breaks them apart.
What inspired your work?
Trinidade Vieira: This work focuses mainly on erosion, was inspired by the Rocha do Navio, and I do not want to stick to that title, because I do not want people to be conditioned by it. It is mainly a reference to the islets around the island and that consequently arose from natural disasters. There were not beaten lightly the sea, there is erosion on the coast and did not emerge from the birth of the island was something that was always happening. The other aspect that I stress is the resilience, is a work about the hope of the next day, after a disaster. Nature already does it in a fantastic way, it is reborn, little by little recovers from the chaos as people.
Tell me about the shades you used.
TV: It was very simple, it is acrylic on canvas, I used this time a bigger brush is thicker and unique. And I did the mixing of the paints separately, there is a palette of colors, then use a brush and make a large movement is continuous, if you look closely it makes waves in the background is the coast that goes out and meets the sea. Where I spent more hours of work was in the heaven, is my reference to the resilience, exactly the terms of raising the next day and gain strength to be reborn.
But that is not all that you approach, there was also a working partnership.
TV: Exactly, I invited a fellow artist Andreia Nobrega, because the detail of the vegetation I would say it is very macro , I do not go into details . As it comes from the north of the island , where there is a lot of forest, I thought she would be the ideal person to make an addition to my work . Show something that my work does not focus on the detail of vegetation , shrubs and paths. It is a work of pen on paper, detailed for several hours .
Andreia Nobrega : It all started with Trinidade and the theme was the erosion , the space was targeted for a study on the observation of nature , and how after the chaos reappears . It's a natural narrative .
Tell me about the technique you used .
AN: I start from a point, the drawing is done with various types of pen on paper. Starting the work I am going through the observation of the memory of the space. I designed the typical plants, the canes, the banana trees, etc. . . .
