HALF OF THE SKY 2019 — SANDRA BAIA

HALF OF THE SKY | 2019

In 2019, the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Museum celebrates the twenty- fifth anniversary of its opening to the public. It is within the scope of that celebration that, alongside works by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, the museum will host, from 21 March to 23 March, an exhibition project by Pedro Cabrita Reis: A metade do céu [Half the sky]. Cabrita Reis has assembled a group show that is entirely and openly free of any thematic restraints, as well as from curatorial narrative, and indeed from all discursive artifice. Instead, it is based on an elementary intention, on an axiomatic, unshakeable will: “that it would act, quite simply, as a means to disclose the thought, the outlook and the creative practice of Half the sky” – the very same half that, according to Mao Zedong, is held up by each and every woman. Out of that phrase, found in a text attributed to the Chinese leader, the artist has conceived and developed his exhibition project, reminding us nonetheless “that art has always been averse and immune to ideology”. What matters most, here, is that exordial intent. It is important to bring to Vieira da Silva a unique – personal, affective, certainly passionate – view of that other half.

Pedro Cabrita Reis brings to the Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Museum an important selection of works, “from Josefa de Óbidos until yesterday”, as a celebration of contrast, the principle of divergence. Half the sky defines a territory of confrontation – as can observed immediately in its multidis- ciplinary approach, combining drawing and painting, sculpture and installa- tion, photography and video. However, the search for otherness transcends the formal dimension. Conflict matters as much, or even more, than consensus. We must pay very close attention to the conflict that throbs in each trajectory, countering the standardising approach that is possibly fed by art history (or certain forms of it). In fact, this exhi- bition examines the lunar side of each featured artist, revealing as often as possible what could be less expected from her – a piece that has not been widely shown, that perhaps stands out of the whole, somewhat unexpectedly. Such is the case of the works by Menez, Ana Hatherly or Helena Almeida. Half the sky communicates a certain eagerness for the thrill of the epiphanic deviation, that thoroughly primordial vertigo.

Indeed, even the most famous and widely studied artist to be featured here clearly awaits the rediscovery of her work, over and over again, by contem- porary eyes. Josefa de Óbidos’ still life must be seen in the light of contempo- rary art – if for no other reason, at least as a means to search for astonishment. It is precisely in tangency, somewhere in the interstice, that the exhibition’s purpose is fulfilled.

Adriana Molder Alexandra C. Ana Hatherly Ana Izabel Miranda Rodrigues Ana Jotta Ana León Ana Pérez-Quiroga Ana Vidigal Ana Vieira Ângela Ferreira Armanda Duarte Aurélia de Sousa Catarina Leitão Cecília Costa Clara Menéres Cristina Ataíde Cristina Mateus Fátima Mendonça Fernanda Fragateiro Filipa César Gabriela Albergaria Graça Costa Cabral Graça Morais Graça Pereira Coutinho Helena Almeida Inês Botelho Joana Bastos Joana Rosa Joana Vasconcelos Josefa de Óbidos Júlia Ventura Leonor Antunes Lourdes Castro Luísa Correia Pereira Luísa Cunha Mafalda Santos Maria Helena Vieira da Silva Maria José Aguiar Maria José Oliveira Marta Soares Menez Patrícia Garrido Paula Rego Raquel Feliciano Rita GT Rosa Carvalho Salette Tavares Salomé Lamas Sandra Baía Sara (&André) Sara Bichão Sarah Affonso Sílvia Hestnes Ferreira Sofia Areal Susana Anágua Susana Mendes Silva Susanne Themlitz Tânia Simões Teresa Segurado Pavão Túlia Saldanha Vanda Madureira

Pedro Cabrita Reis