Inês Moura’s Entre Manhãs at Casa Museu Bissaya Barreto
Inês Moura’s solo exhibition Entre Manhãs at Casa Museu Bissaya Barreto presents a particular challenge: fitting in with the wealth of details at this venue. However, before analysing the show, we should mention the artist’s background and the exhibition’s conception process.
Born in Coimbra, Inês Moura is an artist who thoroughly researches the concept of identity through her experience between Coimbra and São Paulo. Graduating in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and with a master’s degree in Arts and Artistic Processes from the São Paulo State University, Inês lived in São Paulo for almost twelve years. After a long journey of experiences and reunions, her return to Portugal is another stage in her identity path.
The exhibition is set in six settings, starting with subtle teases between intricate tiles, greenhouses and unconventional plants. This setting defies both the artist and curator Stefânia R. as they try to blend the works, which at times dilute, rustle, shout or overlap, into this unconventional exhibition area.
The visit kicks off unusually, with the entrance through a side room, where the exhibition title and the artist’s and curator’s names are prominently featured, but without any introductory texts or titles for the works. These can only be found on the room sheet, which ends up encouraging visitors to assign meaning based solely on the images and their aesthetic allure, without words interfering. This first room endeavours to create a ghostly atmosphere, stimulating a more aesthetic and intuitive experience.
The first work presented, together with the exhibition title, is an image made in a mirror, portraying an anthropomorphic figure who simultaneously is and is not Inês. The image has shades of blue, repeated in other works that dialogue with each other. The first work is then revealed as an almost abstract self-portrait of the artist, exposing this state of being both a place and a non-place, at once, within the reflection. The long corridor leading to the following room reflects on temporality and Inês’ own journey, referring to ideas of territoriality, of inter-spaces, of time substance infusion and absorption.
The second room, a vast white wall brings us to a central point: a blurred portrait of Inês, this exhibition’s Monalisa, once again uses the colour blue. Set on a white support, this portrait stands in contrast to the previous work, creating an aesthetic continuity. The blue tone here is symbolic, tied to the languages of colours, flowers, zodiac signs and dreams, in line with the exhibition’s proposal to explore the “between” – the artist’s middle and subjective ground, as if we were entering Inês’ deepest self.
One striking detail is that the polaroids are raised, making it difficult for people of smaller stature or with visual impairments to admire them (our short-sightedness almost prevents us from experiencing this polaroid narrative); however, within this blue narrative, one work stands out in particular, entitled O VAZIO QUE DEIXASTE EM MIM #2. The varying heights of the works in the main room, some tall and others shorter, provide a harmonious visual musicality, making sense for them to be displayed the way they are. The way back to the main hall after the side room stresses the theme of the “space between”, changing visitors along the way – after all, one does not enter the same river twice.
The main room is a disruptive layout and barely has any dialogue with the previous areas. This bright, white space is the site of a series of thirteen morning self-portraits, in which a bedspread appears constantly, suggesting an affective value. The portrait series reveals parts of the artist’s body without showing her face, challenging female representation conventions and controlling the way she is observed. The body’s figuration is dancing in line with the exhibition’s rhythmic musicality.
The third room is another eye-catcher, with two dark images. One depicts a bed in the morning, while the other shows Inês’ back. The light and shade combination is reminiscent of chiaroscuro, conjuring up a sensuous and sensorial Caravaggesque aesthetic. We would have liked to touch this work if we were allowed to. The natural afternoon lighting brings a theatrical element to the exhibition, making the sun, which enters through the window and hits Inês’ back, an integrating element of the work. The space also contains a range of artistic languages in the installation sphere, such as the work Em Desalinho. The room’s layout with the two dark images facing each other, using similar image poetics, as opposed to the installation piece in the adjoining room, generates an interesting visual dialogue. The contrast between the peacefulness of the images in the first room and the installation in the next looks to suggest an emotional journey of the artist herself, prompting the idea of memory, space, body and lack. This transition between the different atmospheres and artistic approaches is certainly a crucial part of the exhibition itself, encouraging viewers to reflect on and appreciate the multiple layers of meaning present in the exhibition venue.
The final work to visit is located outside the Casa Museu, in the greenhouse. Its name is Cœur, a stone found in Brazil, cast in iron and symbolising the artist’s heart. This environment, wrapped in plants and warmth, provides a visceral cosiness, symbolising the throbbing fusion between the human body and the constantly moving photosynthesising bodies present there. The piece is evocative of post-naturalist studies that debate the problem of the Anthropocene, while notoriously making reference to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, as it is suspended in front of the sculptural shell motifs inside the greenhouse, as if that body emerged from it – in a sense, the artist’s body.
All in all, Inês Moura’s exhibition is a plunge into her subjectivity, memory and identity, subtly integrating her transatlantic experiences and proposing a new reading of space and time. It can be visited until June 29, with free admission, and this event is part of the Convergent Programme of Anozero’24 – Coimbra Biennial.