João Francisco Vilhena, distinguished by the iconic photos of José Saramago in Lanzarote (1998) for an exhibition in honour of the Nobel Prize for Literature, now introduces us to a set of images that, in his words, "reproduce memories, short stories of journeys that form my world, my past and present addresses". And he adds: "The mystery and silence of the shadows give photography a symbolic dimension: the melancholy of memories".

Thus the spectator is invited to dive into the author’s memories, from the Leon Trotsky House Museum in Mexico, to Saramago’s house in Lanzarote, Pascoaes’ in Amarante, from Venice, Belgium, Serra da Estrela, to the foot of the ocean and Western Sahara.

The works on display are the result of the artist’s exploration of the resources provided by the Atelier CPS, which took shape in a set of printed photos on Japanese paper with Chine‑collé and blind intaglio creasing, bringing a new plastic approach to the photographic image.

About the exhibition, the art critic Maria João Fernandes* has written:

“In João Vilhena’s art, photography is close to painting resuming another great tradition of twentieth century art since the American Stieglitz (1864-1946) but, at the same time, it acquires its own autonomy provided by the link to a reality that has the blood of poetry in its veins.

(…) We are at the core of a poetic adventure, of the poetic adventure that led the author to become the translator of works and universes as complex as those of Teixeira de Pascoaes, Fernando Pessoa or José Saramago.”

The exhibition "The Melancholy of Shadows" expands the value of the photographic image, contextualizing it in a universe of the art and graphic work’s multiform character that the CPS has been promoting over the past 30 years.

Centro Português de Serigrafia Gallery at the CCB
Centro Cultural de Belém, loja 7
Praça do Império 1449-003 Lisboa
Tel. +351 213 162 175   /  Open everyday from 10h to 21h.

 Opening May 19th, at 18:00

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