Lembranças, Souvenirs, Recuerdos
Brasil - Portugal, 2014 - 2021
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Between 2014 and 2017 I developed a research of photographs sent by Portuguese migrants in Brazil and their relatives back in Portugal. I searched through many hundreds of photographs, partially in institutional archives and mainly at the homes of Portuguese migrants in Brazil. Among these photographs, I selected those that served as ‘lembranças’, or souvenirs until the 1970s, meaning that they articulated a specific type of experience of virtuality, of construction at distance of common memories. They were usually sent by post from Brazil to Portugal.
This research took place within a PhD in Artistic Studies at the NOVA University of Lisbon - FCSH and ECO - University Federal of Rio de Janeiro, and resulted amongst other outputs in:
- a visual installation of photo frames aqui sou eu / aqui já está sumindo eu at the collective exhibition Chama Plural (Portuguese Consulate in São Paulo), curated by Isabella Lenzi, 2016.
- 3 versions of the artist book coisas de lá / aqui já está sumindo eu initially launched within a visual installation co-authored by Daniela Rodrigues and curated by Paula Borghi at Saracvra, 2016; the book won the award of Best Visual Essay 2019 atributed by the Portuguese Association of Anthropology - APA, and was also exhibited at several venues in Cyprus, Portugal and Brazil in-between 2016 and 2021.
- the online performance aqui já está sumindo eu within the cycle “performing the archive” of the project Perphoto, curated by Filipe Figueiredo and Cosimo Chiarelli, (2021).
- a PhD thesis in Artistic Studies - Lembranças, Souvenirs, Recuerdos: Photography and Portuguese Migrations to Brazil (1860 - 1960). Advisors: Margarida Medeiros (NOVA - FCSH), Mauricio Lissovsky (ECO - UFRJ).
List of images sent by mail and hidden in different places such as libraries, Airbnb apartments, archives, etc.:
— 08/11/2016: Picture of Orlando in a ship – somewhere in an Institute in the centre of Funchal, Madeira.
— 02/12/2016: Picture of some of Marta’s relatives – Paphos temple, Cyprus, in-between a post and a cornerstone.
— 22/06/2017: (2) Photos that I can no longer recall – Faculdade de Letras do Porto, under a stone.
— 26/06/2017: Picture of Orlando in Copacabana – Biblioteca de São Lázaro in Lisboa, in a book about D. Dinis.
— 26/06/2017: Portrait of Dulce Helena – Biblioteca de São Lázaro in Lisboa, kept in a Drummond de Andrade poetic anthology.
— 07/06/2017: Portirait carte-de-visite of Vitor Pereira – Biblioteca da Faculdade de Letras, Lisboa, hidden in a Gilles Deleuze book which title I can no longer recall.
— 01/07/2017: Photo of a portrait of Evely – hidden by Maria at Biblioteca Municipal de Macau, in the book One Hundred Earth Facts.
— 03/07/2017: Record of the flower diary – hidden by Bruna in a second-hand bookstore in Maletta, in the book Olga by Fernando Morais.
— 26/07/2017, around 2pm, local time – Place: Latitude 40o 46’ 3, 12’’ N – Longitude: 73o 58’ 1, 788’’ W, New York – E 66th St. and Park Avenue, photo that I can no longer recall – hidden by Lucas among a set of letters belonging to the Jewish community, not yet retrieved by the locals.
— 12/08/2017, around 10am, local time - Local: Latitude: 47o 30’ 14, 982’’
N – Longitude: 19’ 3’ 43, 93’’ E, Budapest – Andrássy út 43, Oktogono, about 1,6 km from the river Danube, photo that I no longer recall – hidden by Lucas in an Airbnb apartament, without ever coming into contact with the owner, Bella, who appeared to live there with her boyfriend. Lucas placed the photo in a Deep Purple LP, the first one to appear in pile from left to right.
— 15/09/2017 or 18/09/2017: Photo of Dona Dina – Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, book on the History of the Portuguese Postal Service.
— 12/10/2017: Photo I can no longer recall received by Gisèle in Paris – hidden in a random mail box?
— 13/10/2017: Photo I can no longer recall received by Claire in Paris.
— 14/10/2017: Photo I no longer recall received by Hudson in Rio de Janeiro – concealed somewhere in the archive of Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil.
— 14/10/2017: Photo I can no longer recall received by Marina at her home in São Paulo.
— 12/11/2017: Photo of Monique capiau – forgotten at my bedside table in Maternidade Alfredo da Costa.
— 19/02/2018: Photo of a couple kissing – hidden under a rock in Parque das Conchas, Lisboa.
— 5/09/2018: Photo of a postcard of actress Laura Alves – placed in a book on the History of Japan at Waterstones bookstore, London.
— 10/01/2021: Photo of Dona Dina sent to J. in Berlin.
— 11/01/2021: Photo of people in the Azores sent to T. in Rio de Janeiro.
— 12/01/2021: Drawing of a bottle of wine sent to S. in Orléans.
Re-mediation of the assembled images in slide film,
installation with visualizer in Saracvra, Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
installation with visualizer in Saracvra, Rio de Janeiro, 2016.
Assemblage of images from the field work research LSR, 2014 - 2017, version 1.0 without text or caption, 2016.
Frame from a video of Maria Matta going through her childhood family albums and stating “here am I”. From the installation aqui sou eu / aqui já está sumindo eu, 2016.
Frames from a video of Maria Matta going through her childhood family albums and stating “here am I” or alternatively “here I am already fading away”. From the installation aqui sou eu / aqui já está sumindo eu, 2016
Maria Matta at Alto Amazonas, circa 1927, from the installation aqui sou eu / aqui já está sumindo eu, 2016
here am I / here I am already fading away
Installation of a projected picture of Maria Matta, a magnifying glass and a number of printed frames from a video recorded by her son, Joaquim Matta. The video depicts Maria Matta, pointing at childhood portraits and saying “here am I”, when the image is clear, and “here I am already fading away” when the image of her face is vanishing.
MI_ICO_AMP_047_001_008_001V.jpg. “Counter-gift” A3 of the research project LSR, sent scanned by email by Wellington from the Arquivo Estadual de São Paulo, Museu de Imigração. Displayed at Chama Plural, 2016. <-- --> Photos of a boat named Hilary. “Counter-gift” A8 of the research project LSR, mentioned by Joaquim Matta as a post-memory of a forgotten memory of his mother, in 2015. Displayed at Chama Plural, 2016.
Chama Plural, exhibition catalogue, curated by Isabella Lenzi, Consulado Geral de Portugal, 2016
Picture (©Lucas Bambozzi) from the Installation aqui sou eu / aqui já está sumindo eu, exhibition Chama Plural, curated by Isabella Lenzi, Consulado Geral de Portugal, 2016
