Ana Vieira, The Passage of the Lady M.L.T., 1967-2007. Wood and acrylic ink, 80 x 74 x 116 cm. Ana Vieira State Collection. © of the work of art, Ana Vieira State, 2020. Photograph: Frederico Brizida
General view of the exhibition hall «Ana Vieira. The home and the escape», Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, 2020. © Es Baluard Museu, 2020. Photography: David Bonet © of the work of art, Ana Vieira State, 2020
Ana Vieira, Sala de espera. Os móveis a afirmarem a sua inutilidade, 2014. Installation. Altered old wooden furniture and linoleum. Norlinda & José Lima Collection, on long-term loan at the Centro de Arte Oliva, João da Madeira. © of the work of art, Ana Vieira State, 2020. Photograph: David Bonet © Norlinda and José Lima Collection / Centro de Arte Oliva
Ana Vieira, Furniture running away from its fate I, 2014. Inkjet print, 163 x 126 cm. Ana Vieira State Collection. © of the work of art, Ana Vieira State, 2020. Photograph: Frederico Brizida
Ana Vieira, The Passage of the Lady M.L.T., 1967-2007. Wood and acrylic ink, 80 x 74 x 116 cm. Ana Vieira State Collection. © of the work of art, Ana Vieira State, 2020. Photograph: Frederico BrizidaAna Vieira. The home and the escape
“Ana Vieira. The home and the escape” is the first international solo show by this Portuguese artist (Coimbra, 1940 – Lisbon, 2016) outside her native country. Through a series of works in different formats (photography, installation, video…) she establishes a dialogue with the domestic space and social fabric, a reflection she makes, in some cases, by means of a metaphor with the artistic language itself. Architecture reveals itself as a structure from which to pose questions ranging from the situation of women in the home to the weakening of the social structure as a result of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
The display analyses the different ways in which Ana Vieira delves into the observation of the relationships between human beings on the one hand, and the objects and spaces they live with on the other. Her work establishes dialectics between that which is visible and that which is invisible, between the exterior and interior, or even between pause and movement. At the same time, her work questions the fragility of what we call domestic policies.
The spectator’s gaze and presence are modified by the challenge that emerges from her work. It is the spectator who decides what to see, or what not to see. Moreover, her interests have been linked to a constant need to transgress limits, on both a semantic and a spatial level. From the 1960s on, she developed a series of proposals through which she would gradually introduce new challenges: the frame or medium, the object, the perimeter, the volume, invisibility and movement. The visitor travels along physical and mental pathways, transforming his or her vision and relationship with the work and space.
The project invites one to reflect on how, from the outset and using a diversity of languages and media, the artist sets forth a series of procedures that situate us on the threshold and bring us closer to crossing it. Her frames of action allude to the dialogue between person and space, be it artistic, architectural or social. Her goal is to show the mechanisms that delimit our everyday life, that is to say, to lend visibility to the relationship of subjects and their context.
With the collaboration of:
