JULIÃO SARMENTO 2000 – 2010
- Curatorship:
- Fernando Francés
Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma presents the first exhibition in the Balearic Islands of Julião Sarmento (Lisbon, 1948), one of the most world-renowned Portuguese contemporary artists. “Julião Sarmento, 2000-2010” is a retrospective of the artist's works from 2000-present and features painting, drawing, sculpture, video and collage. The exhibition is curated by Fernando Francés and coproduced by Es Baluard and CAC Málaga.
Sarmento's work is notable for its intimate character and his extraordinary ability to raise issues that go beyond the visual, even creating a reality that moves between experience and memory. This dichotomy is very present in his works, with which the audience raises the dilemma of choosing between spirituality and eroticism, morality and sexuality or narrative and speech. Semi-figurative paintings and drawings, minimalist sculptures, videos and collages make up this exhibition, which demonstrates the eclectic nature of the artist and his enormous capacity to address almost all creative disciplines.
The exhibition reflects the most prolific period, regarding to technical resources, of this conceptual artist who suggests rather than shows, who implies more than evidence. Behind each piece are the obsessions of an individual who consistently questions the pleasure, time, desire, absence, and the word, inviting the viewer to be answered himself to all these questions. To do so, the artist uses the language, literature and cinema, essential tools in his work, which often includes quotations or allusions to become images. More or less explicit references in English, Latin and Portuguese of Bataille, Borges, Joyce, Flaubert, Pessoa, Foucault and own expressions (Slowly Dying, 2005 or Under My Breasts, 2005) go through his work, phrases intendedly taken out of context to leave to the audience the effort of finding a new reality, to exercise their eyes and find a different meaning.
Location-Hall: Floor 0.
Production: Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma and CAC Málaga.
