An engraving exhibition by the Portuguese artist Darocha opens on Thursday, June 2nd, at 6pm, at the Portuguese Screen Printing Center (CPS). The Series presented – “Archipelagoes of the Milky Way” – was carried out at the CPS Art Atelier between 2004 and 2005 and is It is made up of around 30 unique specimens, 20 of which were selected for the exhibition. Born in 1945 in Oliveira de Azeméis, Luís Darocha left Portugal in 1967 and went to live in London, then Toulouse in 1969, finally settling in Paris in 1970 where he lived and worked, there. remaining until to current affairs. About Luís Darocha, who has exhibited individually since 1968 (Galeria Alvarez), wrote the well-known critic, also based in Paris, Egídio Álvaro (exhibition catalog at the Amadeo de Souza Cardoso Museum in 1998): "I have always known Darocha as a researcher and a researcher in the vast field of art, isolated from trends, like almost all great creators, his work is multifaceted. Ambiguous, sometimes, almost always It is fascinating, based on legends, semi-true stories, and an extraordinarily rich personal mythology. The materials used are varied, but in perfect harmony with the content of the message. Canvas, paper , wood, metals, plastics, texts or pigments, everything in his work has a precise meaning and a deep meaning." In painting, engraving, video art, fiction, he recently published in Afrontamento the book: O Farol das Estrelas Cadentes, which he himself illustrated, Darocha has been revealing himself, as Egídio Álvaro suggests , an extraordinary storyteller, capable of integrating old legends and archetypal myths into small mythologies and everyday fables, a characteristic that his current exhibition presents precisely. In the engravings, on the white sheet that fragilely seems to support the drawing as delicate as it is fascinating, there are micro landscapes inhabited by elves, fairies, girls from other eras, aligned in a distribution guided by an occult logic. little monsters, princesses absorbed in secret fantasies, clowns, a whole constellation of images straight from childhood, shooting stars from the firmament of dreams, tumbling onto paper to delight our senses and our imagination; o, re-enchanting everyday life. "I feel like I belong to the race of Vasco da Gama and Magalhões, and not to those who discovered the Berlengas." wrote Darocha. And it is This is precisely a journey that these beautiful engravings document, through the "castle of crossed destinies" that has already been discovered. referred to Italo Calvino, from the inexhaustible continent of dreams where once again infinitely rewrites an always hidden meaning that his images, with humor, superb ingenuity and fine intelligence, in the mastery of refined and visionary lines , let us know.