In Mariana Barrote’s first solo exhibition at Sala 117, drawings, paintings, video and small objects articulate themselves, literally, in the construction of visual narratives and poetry. The different media used contribute to make drawing, first as a matrix, expand trans-disciplinarily, expanding the heterogeneous nature of each of these mediums of expression and reflection.

The monochromatic inscription of the drawing, attributed to its lightness, speed and intuition, gives rise to the use of color as a vigorous and expressive painting substance, is repeated and metamorphosed in the three-dimensionality of the linoleums and small objects, all of which is reunited in the short video consisting of three acts, with its amphibious soundtrack.

Mariana Barrote’s drawings and paintings are full of primitive, carnal and symbolic allusions, references and assumptions around the human figure, disfiguring the body and movement, being anatomically incorrect and excessive, between the human and the divine. These are characters of mythological contours that populate the walls of the exhibition, that the objects embody and that the video symbiotically brings together.

Also, the name of each of the works in the exhibition jokingly summons and directs our imagination and memory of collective myths and stories. Taken from Roger Caillois (1913-1978)^[1], a French sociologist and anthropologist, the title of the exhibition lends itself as an overarching umbrella under which we can think of the whole exhibition: the myth, this superlative faculty of our imagination.

Eye-vo-re until March 14, at gallery Sala 117, Porto.

Mariana Barrote (Fão, 1986) has a degree in Fine Arts – Painting by Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto and is currently undertaking a Master’s degree in Fine Arts – Drawing at the same school.

She is a founding member of Chapa Azul – oficina itinerante de técnicas de impressão (with the support of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian) and was a member of Atelier Guilhotina from 2014 to 2017. She has regularly collaborated with other artists, namely Mariana Caló e Francisco Queimadela and André Fonseca and has participated in artist-in-residence programmes and other residency opportunities.

The following solo exhibitions stand out: O Banho de Diana (2017, Silo, Matosinhos), Aparta-os amado, que vou voando (2016, NGHE Mediathéque, Bruxelas), A tristeza do Rei (2915, Galerie Tres, Nantes) and Nuntios Nocturno (2015, Galeria Módulo, Lisboa).

^[1] In Le mythe et l’homme (1938), Roger Caillois seeks to define the reason and function of the myth, analyzing the different (biological, anthropological and epistemological) determinations that contribute to making collective representations of mythic character a privileged manifestation of imaginative life.