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Maja Escher’s earth-coloured magic

The western roots of magic, connected to nature and unwritten wisdom, can be traced back to medieval times. Medicinal knowledge merged with magical interventions to fend off demons and evil spirits, and endures today in what we call superstition. Superstition is nothing more than the passing on of ancient knowledge that Catholicism tried unsuccessfully to wipe out. Frequently thought of as being of African origin, European witchcraft has its own fears and liturgies; it is still part of the popular collective imagination of some, perhaps those from marginalised communities.

This medieval magic is mainly symbolised by the figure of the witch; not the evil figure from the cartoons, but a mystical healer, later demonised in the witch hunts. In Caliban and The Witch, Silvia Federici calls this phenomenon of genderised persecution one of several repressions – with particular emphasis on colonialism – needed to build capitalism without much resistance. As well as isolating the knowledge and legacies of communities, women are suppressed as authority figures, along with the forces of nature with which they dialogue, while at the same time creating the submission of the feminine and the discourse of nature as a lifeless space of raw materials in relation to humans. Interaction with ecosystems vanishes and the landscape is created, a static form of the natural.

In modernity, it is therefore fitting to attempt to reunite human beings with the realm from which they come, following Ailton Krenak in his Ideas to postpone the end of the world, by attaching to this relationship the burden of climate change as proof of the unsustainability of a hierarchical relationship between the two. It is therefore time to reclaim in earth tones what is outside the age of capitalism.

Starting from an Alentejo background and highlighting the role of ceramics, Maja Escher has been working with natural elements in colour, materials and themes, paying tribute to what she wants to address. The simplified symbolic language, even approaching a childlike representation, is present in works such as descarga eléctrica nuvem-ar (2024), recreating a storm, or in Urplanze (2024), featuring budding trees. The most striking example of a connection to the animal world is ave mãe (2024), a kind of tent built from dyed fabrics held together by clay, cane or even a lock, a cocoon that you have to cross to access the second part of the exhibition. The work planta vertebral (2024) brings together the universe of plants with an anthropomorphic universe, associating botany with a spinal column.

A second aspect of the exhibition is the clay mould of small figures resembling hieroglyphics, the Egyptian civilisation also having been filled with magic. This recaptures the mystical idea of the word, of the symbol, as creation: by being uttered, it can bring to reality what it evokes. In raio nuvem-terra (2024), as in Stam, Ast, Zweig, Bogen, Stengel Netz (2024), this language, unfamiliar but intuitive in its representation, presents itself to us to pass on some kind of prayer, gift or offering.

Back to the title of the exhibition: Pedras de raio. The exhibition text tells us that the stones were born out of the belief that they were “heavenly gifts” and could be used to shield houses from atmospheric catastrophes. The tone is set: we are looking for amulets, materialisations of this hovering magic, sacralising simple objects, tracing origins.

Maja Escher’s Pedras de Raio exhibition is at Monitor until April 20.

Inês Almeida (Lisbon, 1993) has a master's degree in Modern History given by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, part of Nova' s University of Lisbon. Inês has recently completed a Post-Graduation in Curatory of Art in NOVA/FCSH, where she was part of the collective of curators responsible for the exhibition "On the edge of the landscape comes the world" and has started collaborating with Umbigo magazine.

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