How the invitation for your participation in the project two speeds arise?
Lucília Monteiro: My participation arises by the invitation Duarte Santo, who wrote a doctoral thesis on the landscape at high speed and invited a number of artists and photographers to develop work inspired by his thesis, which he called landscape in two speeds. I developed a project, which basically reflects what he says of seeing the landscape always running, whether on motorways and expressways, there is a different way of looking at the same landscape perspective. So I decided to develop an idea from being of Madeira and established a parallel between the speed of my childhood and the contemporary. I decided to create an installation with 20 carts of sugarcane scallops that were the toy of my childhood, where the speed was something we could play on the roads, there was almost no traffic and me and my brothers found ourselves with our friends in the street and we played with these carts stick, a speed that was quieter, with less stress and with more freedom. The speed of contemporary highways I decided to represent them with the same stuff from my childhood that is the scallop cane, which is a plant that invades the mountain and the scenery a bit and made this counter-point, through a plant that also breaks by this landscape that is constructed, whether the pillars or walls of concrete, because despite the time of construction of these works the cane scallop be destroyed, past few days is already burst. Then picked it up as a symbol of this world we live in at great speed, on rampant construction, to walk as quickly as possible and also wanted to note that despite all the nature is still very powerful. In the background is a criticism of this world that is built with great speed and often we are running not quite knowing why, nor stopped or breathe. Nature is also a warning, it is been destroy, because we think we are super-powerful, do landscape what we want and we use it in new technologies, but deep down she continues to rule, continues to have more strength.
I noticed that although are photos of your hometown, Santa Cruz, the fact is that images could come from other areas of the island, or even landscapes where construction is gaining space to nature.
LM: Exactly. You could say that the work of the Duarte Santo is universal, because deep the world lives at high speed and I wanted my message was for everyone, would not that be something very specific, reflecting only on Madera. This question of construction and speed has its downside, but also positive and it is global. So, do not identify the location too much, the sites in an obvious way. I even prefer the message to be subjective to give wings to the imagination of the people, to stop, look and question themselves, why this picture is so?
Your picture in the background is conceptual.
LM: Yes, I decided to make a more conceptual work. My photography beyond the cliché of frameworks, concepts deal with the background to escape the banality of the image. It is a photographic project further for reflection, is less obvious.
It is also as a way of distancing youtself from the amateur photography, since nowadays the photograph trivialized in such a way that everyone is a photographer in power?
LM: Exactly. Nowadays, there is an excess of image and that means there is a race to see the pictures, no one stops to see the photos, but they must be read. If notice in an exhibition people go by and saying, "hey, that is cute", but my pictures are not cute. Another objective was that the escape that banality, that is a picture of what is happening and not for reading. My photography is a reflection and intends to force people to think, why she did this? And I hope you have achieved that gold.
