Between the 24th of July and the 30th of December, the Municipal Museum of Tavira – Palácio da Galeria hosts the exhibition A ARTE QUE É – II by Pedro Portugal, which is open to the public from the 27th.
An exhibition that integrates large-scale paintings created between 1996 and 2002, as well as a multiplicity of experiences: films, drawings, animations, performances and objects made from 2013 on.
The exhibition, curated by Pedro Portugal, includes works by the artist spread across several collections, namely, Altice Portugal Foundation, Caixa Geral de Depósitos Foundation – Culturgest, Carmona e Costa Foundation, Serralves Foundation, António Prates Art Gallery and Art Museum Contemporânea de Elvas – António Cachola Collection.
A universe in which art is explained, iconographically, in order to better understand what the artist and art intend to communicate: a 3 meter negative panda, a lambskin urinal, 40 ARTOJIS that emulate art and artists, a mockup the Monument to Intelligent Football, the Monument to Black Toilet Paper, an interior sundial or a faceless version of Zé Povinho, among other works.
In A ARTE QUE É II Pedro Portugal questions Art, through a research process that, in his own words, combines, quotes, steals, borrows and recomposes works and thoughts of other artists. In this interpellation, which integrates different moments of his artistic biography, the use of irony, play and the comic element unfolds in constant allusions to signs and symbols, in a swing between visuality and language, between representation and meaning by via a profuse diversity of means. The purpose is the self-reflection of Art about its essence, both as an aesthetic and cultural phenomenon, and in its post-modern condition of political and social intervention and change.
Associated with the exhibition, the book A ARTE QUE É – II will be published, co-edited by CHAIA – Center for the History of Art and Artistic Research of the University of Évora and by the Municipality of Tavira, where all artistic achievements in Portugal and texts published in newspapers will be documented and magazines, in the last ten years.
