This is a demanding essay in two parts, where the expectations of those who think they will find mostly photographic pieces are shattered and then reconstructed. The support criterion becomes insufficient to define an event dedicated to photography and extends beyond it.

At Vila Franca de Xira Photography Biennial, curated by Ana Rito, the medium travels outside of itself to meet and reflect on itself, but also on its receivers and on their decisive role in the contemporary production of images. These same images enter into dialogue with other elements, which include objects – establishing relationships with the space they occupy – and words – directly producers of meaning.

In the exhibition Diante-Dentro, one of the moments of this reflection at Museu Municipal, the images are set in time and space, interacting with visitors. This allows us to reflect on the relationships between the photographic and sculptural side, creating a multitude of new images with fluid meanings. For example, the shiny object waving in the wind on a fixed plane in Manuela Marques’ video, contrasting with photographs of the contextless floating elements, where we wait for them to fall; in Henrique Pavão’s opacities and transparencies, where the reproduction of a stone stolen from the Parthenon is superimposed on the projection of an old image of it (through an overhead projector), subtracting and adding itself; or in the images of faceless bodies that inhabit Noé Sendas’ space.

In this section we can also see the many images and objects by Daniel Moreira and Rita Castro Neves, which speak to us of the creative environment; Marcelo Moscheta’s images; and also Paulo Lisboa’s installation, where a beam of light crosses the materiality of a marble and is projected onto a screen that dared to intercept it, creating a slowly transfiguring image.

Still thinking about ambiguous images, we take a short walk to Fábrica das Palavras to visit the second moment of this reflection, entitled Não olhamos duas vezes a mesma-imagem. It includes the whole municipal library, paying special attention to the intervention of Os Espacialistas, together with Gonçalo M. Tavares, present in all the floors of the building, which could not be more adequate to the exercise proposed by the collective.

In this second moment, the works seem to go beyond the circumstances of their own existence and what they represent, as they speak about the ways and devices of the eye. For example, Gary Hill with his double portrait of the actress Isabelle Huppert, who observes us and sees herself; Batia Suter, with her platonic exercise allied to the local historical context through the projection on a chair of Alves Redol; or Raquel Melgue’s poetic montages.

All these works, in addition to Pierre Coulibeuf, prove that sometimes you need to be outside photography to talk about it.

Both exhibitions are at the municipal library of Vila Franca de Xira and at Fábrica das Palavras until February 26.

The exhibition of the finalists of the BFVF Prize – won by Sebastião Raimundo – in Celeiro da Patriarchal Barn was on display until 15 January.