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The ambiguity of the sacred in Netsuke, by Albano Silva Pereira, at Pavilhão Branco

This is how the sacred manifests itself. It stems from the obscure world of sex and death, but is the essential principle of life and the source of all effectiveness, a force ready to unload itself and hardly isolatable, always equal to itself, at once dangerous and vital.”[1] 

Roger Caillois, a French sociologist, explores in Man and the Sacred the complex connection between human societies and the sacred, expressed in the most mundane facets of life, endowed with an underlying element that permeates individual and social consciousness. The author believes this ambiguous character of the sacred provides meaning, cohesion and stability, simultaneously embodying mystery and unpredictability, potentially stirring up fear and reverence, attraction and repulsion, order and chaos. The role of taboo and ritual is crucial to this understanding of the sacred, in which the intricate relationship between sex, life and death has a profound influence on human behaviour, interpersonal relationships, social structures and belief systems. Caillois argued that the sacred arises from obscurity, from the tension between sex, representing the drive for life, and death, the cryptic end of existence. This is especially visible in the religious and profane rituals of different cultures, where the vibrancy of the sense of the sacred can be traced back to the dual relationship between sex and life and death.

In Death and Sensuality, the French philosopher Georges Bataille[2] also ties sex, death, life and the sacred together. The author recognises the erotic urge as a primordial trait of human experience, establishing itself in the intricate exchange between ecstasy and anguish, arising from experiences that exceed limits and defy norms. This concept emphasises the concept of transgression, whereby the limitations of existence are brought face to face and the darkest and most irrational aspects are tapped into when defying moral and social norms. Bataille felt that transgression was inherent to experiencing the erotic and the sacred, manifesting itself in the most carnal sides of life, in profanity and taboo, offering access to the deepest and most repressed aspects of the Self.

His thoughts bring out the ambiguity of the erotic, evident in the sexual act which, according to the author, is at once based on the violent destruction of individual identities and the utmost pleasure of union with the other. Sexual union, he claimed, opens up a window onto the possibility of transcending the finitude and discontinuity of life and, through it, returning to the very continuity of being from which humans were severed at birth. Sexual desire is therefore always the lust for the absolute and continuous, which, in transcending human finitude, attains the realm of the sacred. This desire, paradoxically, is only possible through death, by dissolving individual beings, or when life’s discontinuity is surpassed. According to the author, “(…) death does not affect the continuity of existence, since in existence itself all separate existences originate; continuity of existence is independent of death and is even proved by death.”[3]

Albano Silva Pereira’s exhibition Netsuke, featuring Japanese culture and rituals, seems to straddle these bridges between life and death, sex, ritual and the sacred. On display at Pavilhão Branco until March 31, the exhibition, curated by Sara Antónia Matos, plunges into the universe of the artist, collector and curator, cross-referencing his photographic and film output with his collection of Japanese objects, talismans and artefacts, assembled during his several trips to the Land of the Rising Sun over more than two decades.

The name of the exhibition alludes to the small carved ornaments, generally made of ivory or wood, which, during the Edo period (1603 – 1868), a highly significant cultural, economic and social development boom in Japan, marked by kabuki theatre, ukiyo-e wood engravings and haiku poetry, served as clips for attaching small bags to the obi, or belts, of kimonos. Apart from this purpose, netsuke were also used to store and transport countless objects, such as ashtrays, tobacco, compasses, sundials, abacuses, paintbrushes, firearms and even firefly cages. They often depicted animals, mythical creatures, deities, folklore and literary characters. Netsuke became increasingly elaborate and ornate, also having a symbolic and cultural importance, and were given the mystical power of talismans.

We meet several of these tiny objects throughout the exhibition, but, even before we enter the venue, we are welcomed by a long Japanese scroll, featuring several samurai, the pre-modern Japanese warriors who later established the ruling military class, the highest social caste of the Edo period.

As we step into Pavilhão Branco, surrounded by its crystalline brightness, we instinctively look for the source of a sound that blends in with the one that is so typical of the Palácio Pimenta gardens. The soothing murmur of running water, a rhythmic pattern, a steady liquid flowing over the pebbles, the buzzing of cicadas and the croaking of nocturnal frogs. We stumble upon a black cube. We open the curtain and let the darkness swallow us up. Slowly, little by little, shades of grey are revealed at the back of the room, with some shapes and movements emerging. Our eyes need a few minutes to settle and we can see Ensaio sobre o filme Os Amantes Crucificados de Kenji Mizoguchi (2023). This emphasises how, as a technological means of perception, cinema constructs a world of light, rhythm and sound, entirely engulfing our senses. Receiving it not only involves the body, but also exposes our own physical limitations. As a matter of fact, apart from the scene in playback, where, amid attraction and disgust, disturbance and seduction, pleasure and taboo, a samurai and a geisha get involved, the way in which this film by Albano Silva Pereira is set up and exhibited also offers a sensory experience, profoundly sensual and compelling, inciting us to pay attention to every sound and gesture, increasing the awareness of our own body, our connection to space and time, which seems to be suspended there, extended, only measured by the 7’38” that span the beginning and end of the film.

We step once again into the intoxicating light and, on the upper floor, we head into the room called Tea Rituals – Rituais de chá e de saké, where photos of traditional Japanese weddings are jostled with the tantalising fascination of shunga representations, the erotic art of traditional Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts. Small, exquisite ceramic sculptures portraying different sexual positions in the centre of the altar are in sharp opposition to the erect wooden phallic sculptures, harking back to Shinto festivals in which the penis is publicly worshipped as a symbol of prosperity and fertility, also venerated for its association with marital prosperity, such as the Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki and the Hōnen Matsuri in Komaki. There are two glass cases in the centre of the room stocked with objects, books, drawings, newspapers, masks, photographs, postcards, netsuke, multiple kanzashi (hairpins) and shunga prints, among floral and botanical representations – when translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring, and spring is often used as a euphemism for sex.

The final room on the upper floor of Pavilhão, entitled S. Rituals – Sala Shunga, contains the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto or Hiroshima, as captured by Albano Silva Pereira’s photographic lens, surrounded by altars similar to the Butsudan, commonly seen in Buddhist temples and houses in Japan, where family ancestors are celebrated and honoured. The butsudan in this case, like the table in the centre of the room, are packed with many historical objects and documents, photos of geishas, sumō wrestlers and soldiers, along with Japanese tea ritual utensils. Originating in Zen Buddhism and shaped by the principles of wabi-sabi, the Japanese way of enjoying imperfection and impermanence, the tea ceremony, or chanoyu, epitomises simplicity, calm and mindfulness. This is characterised by a minimalist aesthetic and a focus on natural materials such as wood, bamboo and clay. The objects’ beauty and the peaceful, luminous atmosphere of the tea room, parallel to that of the exhibition, provide serenity and restraint, suitable for a contemplative dialogue with the sacred, thereby opening up a different perspective on the ambiguity of the sacred and the erotic. The act of brewing, serving and drinking tea in chanoyu is elevated to a ritualistic communion with the divine, where the sacredness of each moment and gesture is sought and acknowledged. This shared communal experience subtly but profoundly touches the senses and crosses the boundaries of the self.

This is also the room, in an adjoining area, where a black screen is found between the walls. A less discerning glance would have deemed it switched off. However, we spend some time with it and, as our attention adjusts, subtle details come to the fore. The bodies of the lovers are unveiled. Ensaio sobre o filme O Império dos Sentidos, de Nagisa Oshima (2024) honours the 1977 film that explores the intensely obsessive relationship between the former prostitute Sada Abe and her employer in pre-World War II Japan. By blurring the lines between pleasure and pain, love and violence, the film ventures into the darkest depths of human lust and the ramifications of unrestrained passion, exploring the sacredness and taboo surrounding sexuality, especially in the context of traditional Japanese society. Sexual intercourse is presented within the ambiguity of the sacred and the erotic, as the characters embark on rituals of desire that erode the frontiers between pleasure and transgression, where lovers find in death an eternal union.

This ambiguous experience of the erotic and the sacred is how we end our journey on the lower floor, confronted with mortality and the limits of existence. The centre of the room displays a battered Japanese motorbike, a Honda 900 SBR. The artist suffered an accident on it in 2020 that nearly took his life. On the wall, Still Alive (2020), the artist’s self-portrait, is a collection of nine photographs he took while in hospital. Following a life-threatening accident, the artist addresses death through a mixture of vulnerability and resilience, emphasising the underlying tension and fine balance between creation and destruction.

When exploring the meaning and symbolic echo of the many different objects in Netsuke, which are physically shrouded in light and veiled shadows, the exhibition’s mysterious character, concealing as much as revealing, is reinforced. Enticing the senses, eliciting a subdued but mesmerising fascination, Albano Silva Pereira’s unique, refined and nuanced perspective is laid bare. Set in the intricate and ambiguous dynamic between excess and restraint, pleasure and taboo, hiding and unveiling, the exhibition seemingly displays the complexities of desire and the puzzling essence of the sacred, caught between sex, ritual, life and death.

Albano Silva Pereira’s Netsuke, curated by Sara Antónia Matos, is on show at Pavilhão Branco until March 31, 2024.

 

[1] Caillois, Roger (1988). O Homem e o Sagrado. Lisboa: Edições 70, p. 149.
[2] Roger Caillois and Georges Bataille founded in 1937 the “Collège de Sociologie”, a group of French intellectuals from different backgrounds and fields who came together to reassess the role of the sacred, emphasising the non-rational, instinctive side of human social experience.
[3] Bataille, Georges. (1962). Death and Sensuality. New York: Walker and Company, pp. 20-21.

Inês Grincho Rego (Lisbon, 1994) graduated in Multimedia Art - Audiovisuals from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Art History from the NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Besides developing her research in contemporary art history she has been working as a mediator and collection assistant in several museums in Lisbon (King D. Carlos Sea Museum, MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, among others).

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