Re-Vizitação
Montemor-o-Novo, 2008 | 2024
In 2008 I photographed an ex-votos room at Our Lady of Vizitação Church, in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. Photographs of soldiers, a snake and an embalmed crocodile brought from the Portuguese Colonial war endow the main ex-votos room with their strong presence. In the pre-room and in the main room one can also occasionally find miniature ex-votos paintings from the late 19th century giving thanks to our Lady of Vizitação for the recovery of diseases, predominantly tuberculosis. My grandfather drove me there and always talked about me convincing the priest to photograph the place, a fact that I don’t remember at all.
Montemor-o-Novo, 2008 | 2024
In 2008 I photographed an ex-votos room at Our Lady of Vizitação Church, in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. Photographs of soldiers, a snake and an embalmed crocodile brought from the Portuguese Colonial war endow the main ex-votos room with their strong presence. In the pre-room and in the main room one can also occasionally find miniature ex-votos paintings from the late 19th century giving thanks to our Lady of Vizitação for the recovery of diseases, predominantly tuberculosis. My grandfather drove me there and always talked about me convincing the priest to photograph the place, a fact that I don’t remember at all.
In 2017 my grandmother supposedly prayed to Our Lady of Vizitação so I could give birth to an healthy baby, which happened. She might have aftwerwards placed a picture of my daughter there, I am not sure. In 2023, the year both my grandparents died, I placed there a framed picture from 2008 of the ex-votos main room. In my perspective the picture then became an ex-votos itself, a discrete mise-en-abîme divergée, and a sign of the act of remembrance itself.
My intention is to do an unique copy of book.
work in progress