The exhibition Refiguration intends to emphasize through photography, video and sound, aspects related to the registration and documentation of works of art in the exhibition space. 

It favours a type of photographic record that, without harming its documentary function, proposes an approach that explores another perceptual dimension, or, by the presence of shadows created by modelling the light or dragged by the motion effects of the human element, an unpredictable event (happening) shaped and observed at a glance. It is in this context that the title Refiguration is derived since the exposed images highlight visual elements (shadows and drags) that, in the form in which they are presented, only exist in the two-dimensional space of the photograph and not in the physical area in which the art objects were exhibited.

This work follows, on the one hand, the documentation activity of the Contemporary Art exhibitions promoted mainly by the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra, which has developed in recent years, and, on the other hand, the academic research carried out on the reception of the work of art by photography. 

The exhibition, also understood as a research process, is designed in a circular way, as if in a loop, a common aspect of the three pieces that constitute it. The pieces are a set of thirteen photographs, twelve with the dimensions of 43.34 x 65 cm and one with 30 x 40 cm, a video with interviews of two artists (José Maçãs de Carvalho and Enzo de Leonibus), who share their reflections on the relevance of some visual elements in the photographs taken, or discuss the role of light as matter, capable of generating realities, symbolic meanings or different perceptions about spaces, people and things, a second video, given by the artist Júlia Ventura, and a sound installation. One of the pieces of this exhibition (the sound column) was part of the exhibition Fiori Nel Mare by the Italian artist Bruna Esposito, who kindly gave it to her on the occasion of her presentation at the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra (14.9.2018 to 25.10.2018). 

The exhibition´s presentation was attended by Dr António Olaio, the UC's Arts College director, and Dr Luís Umbelino, professor of the Faculty of Arts of the UC. 

This exhibition also had the scientific support of the Center for Classical and Humanistic Studies. 

It also presents a set of texts related to the exhibition´s theme by the authors of these and other researchers, who have contributed a lot to the research process that this exhibition is part of and develops and consolidates every day.

The central nucleus of this exhibition is composed of a set of twelve photographs taken in an exhibition context, at different moments of the assembly and exhibition of the works of art, in the period between April 2017 and September 2018. It also presented a photograph of a sound column used to reproduce the sound of a video in the exhibition Fiori Nel Mare, by Bruna Esposito (2018).

The second part of this exhibition was produced with the collaboration of three artists between September and November 2018. José Maçãs de Carvalho's interview was recorded in a room of the Department of Architecture of the University of Coimbra in October, and Enzo de Leonibus was recorded in the cloister of the College of Arts in September. Filming with Júlia Ventura took place at the Jardim da Sereia, in Coimbra, in November.

The exhibition is complemented by a sound installation presented in the main room, which is the result of a work of collecting sounds produced at different times between April 2017 and September 2018 in spaces associated with the assembly and exhibition of artistic works. Also from the sound background are Abandoned by Jan Baars and Forests by Ben Winwood, both licensed by Artlist.io, and sounds from the musical piece António Caramelo performed at the exhibition´s inauguration Uma loja, cinco casas, uma escola.

Photographs in exhibition

My special tanks

I express my gratitude to all the artists and researchers who kindly agreed to participate in this project. I thank all the artists whose works are represented in the photographs on display and those who welcomed the invitation to participate in the video, as well as the researchers who, through their reflections, have made a fundamental contribution to this artistic and research project. I would also like to thank the institutions that have given their support, particularly the Lapa do Lobo Foundation, which promoted and hosted this exhibition.

I am deeply grateful to all of you. Thank you very much, Luísa.
Albuquerque Mendes, Ana Abreu, António Olaio, António Caramelo, Arnaldo Carvalho, Bruna Esposito, Diogo Pimentão, Enzo de Leonibus, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, Jorge Santos, José Maçãs de Carvalho, Júlia Ventura, Luís António Umbelino, Luísa de Nazaré Ferreira, Mariana Torres, Miguel Mesquita, Paulo Mendes, Pedro Pousada, Sónia Simão, Xavier Almeida, Lapa do Lobo Foundation, CAPC - Plastic Arts Circle of Coimbra, College of Arts and Center for Classical and Humanistic Studies at the University of Coimbra.

Programming of the Educational Service

In the context of the programming of the Educational Service of the Lapa do Lobo Foundation, meetings were held with the students of the Nelas Schools group, in which theoretical and practical questions about the works on display were discussed, followed by an accompanying visit to the exhibition space.