Photography and Memory at BES Arte & Finança and at the Berardo Collection Museum
By Sandra Camacho
Leading Portuguese private contemporary art
collections BESart and the Berardo Collection form the
basis of two thoughtful photographic exhibitions currently held in Lisbon. Interestingly,
the shows not only feature works by some of the same artists but they also seem
to be founded on similar premises.
The Banco Espírito Santo (BES) has supported the arts for a number of decades, particularly the decorative arts. Thanks to the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation, the Museum and School of Portuguese Decorative Arts opened in 1953. An interest in contemporary photography led to the establishment of the photography collection - BESart - as well as the launch of the annual BES Photo Award in 2004.
The Banco Espírito Santo (BES) has supported the arts for a number of decades, particularly the decorative arts. Thanks to the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation, the Museum and School of Portuguese Decorative Arts opened in 1953. An interest in contemporary photography led to the establishment of the photography collection - BESart - as well as the launch of the annual BES Photo Award in 2004.
Curated by Luís Serpa, Transition Territories #11 – The Experience of Silence is held at the BES Arte & Finança multifunctional
space and runs from 6 June – 19 September. The show features works by Cindy
Sherman (b.1954), Christian Boltanski (b.1944), Helena Almeida (b.1934), Daniel
Blaufuks (b. 1963) and Jorge Molder (b.1947), among others. The inherently nostalgic
black and white images contribute to the exhibition’s evocative feel and offer a glimpse into the diversity and importance
of the bank’s photography collection.
Grouped into seven distinct sub-themes covering
broader subjects including ‘Territory as Landscape’ to more
personal and traumatic ones such as ‘Territories, [Precarious] and Unstable
Existence’, the show is most successful under the themes of ‘Territories and
Mind Body’ and ‘Territories and Silencing’.
Eurico Lino do Vale, Retratos de homens, 2003 Courtesy of BESart |
‘Territories and Mind Body’ features works
by Helena Almeida, Júlio Ventura (b.1952) and in an adjoining room, by Eurico
Lino do Vale (b. 1966). Facing the same direction and exhibiting an eerie
likeness, do Vale’s portraits of anonymous men surround the viewer. At first
glance, the men seem to belong to the same family but upon closer inspection, one
begins to question this assumption. Circulating around the room one falls in
and out of this certainty.
The question arises: are the faces only
similar because of their position in relation to each other or are the men
actually blood related? Given that no names are shown, it is impossible to
know. However, as the viewer continues the same repetitive circular movements around
the room, it is one’s own bodily relation to the pieces that takes centre stage.
Christian Boltanski, Lumières (blue pyramide - Claudine), 2000 Courtesy of BESart |
Further along in ‘Territories and
Silencing’, Christian Boltanski’s work Lumières
(blue pyramid – Claudine) (2000) stands in conversation with Sherrie Levine’s
Pyramid of Skulls: 1-12, (2002). Besides
the obvious similarity in their pyramidal configuration, the pieces supplement
each other with regards to discussions of the archive and its role in memory,
death and trauma. The repetition found in Pyramid
of Skulls: 1-12 is reflected in the use of identical light bulbs in
Boltanski’s piece - almost as though each light and each picture become stand-ins
for life and death.
Sherrie Levine, Pyramid of Skulls: 1-12, 2002 Courtesy of the artist |
Insomuch, similarities can be found with Between Memory and Archive, an
exhibition curated by Ruth Rosengarten and held at the Berardo Collection
Museum from 3 July – 29 September. Established in
the 1990s and opening as a museum in 2007, the Berardo Collection focuses on
modern and contemporary art. As such, it is unsurprising that both shows have
some artists in common.
Marcel Duchamp, Boîte (Serie C), 1958 Courtesy of the Berardo Collection |
Bernd and Hilla Becher, Watertowers, 1988 Courtesy of the artists |
Taking a somewhat historical approach to the
archive with the inclusion of works by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), Bernd
(1931-2007) and Hilla Becher (b. 1934) and Boltanski, the exhibition progresses
from ‘Consignation’ to ‘From history to fiction and back again’. Although the
first few rooms successfully convey a broad notion of the archive –
particularly through comparisons between Duchamp’s Boîte (Série C) (1958) and Wolf Vostell’s (1932-1998)
Suitcase V40 (1971) or via the
interesting approach of Allan McCollum (b.1944) with regards to repetition and his
Rorschach-like drawing series – the jump to the sub-theme of ‘Performing the
body’ is rather discombobulating.
Christian Boltanski, 364 Suisses morts, 1990 Courtesy of the Berardo Collection |
Installation view with works by Allan McCollum and Robert Wilson Courtesy of the Berardo Collection |
For after viewing a series of monotone works, one struggles to understand the
sudden change into sequences of a colourful go-go dancer and nudes. Adding to
this, while at BESart the sub-theme on the body and performativity
is consistent with the rest of the show, at the Berardo Collection it is difficult
to comprehend how some of the exhibited works fit into the broader themes of
archive and memory.
Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, After fifteen days of fasting II: Self-portrait, 1930 Courtesy of the artist |
In the end,
although Between
Memory and Archive has some positive
moments such as developing associations of trauma, memory, reality and
fiction through the works of Daniel Blaufuks, Boltanski and a few others, the exhibition does not create such an interesting progression. The flow of Transition Territories #11 – The
Experience of Silence is made easier from the get-go due
to Serpa’s selection of solely black-and-white works. This interesting choice
makes his show more cohesive and easier to follow.
Installation view with works by Daniel Blaufuks and Vivan Sundaram Courtesy of the artist |
Transition Territories #11 – The Experience of Silence at BES Arte & Finança
Artists: Helena Almeida, Dieter Appelt,
Daniel Blaufuks, Christian Boltanski, Rui Calçada Bastos, Luís Campos, Hannah
Collins, Tacita Dean, Hamish Fulton, Rodney Graham, Thomas Joshua Cooper,
Sherrie Levine, Craigie Horsfield, Eurico Lino do Vale, João Louro, Cindy
Sherman, Vera Lutter, Jorge Molder, Abelardo Morell, Thomas Struth, Júlia
Ventura
Between Memory and Archive at the Berardo Collection Museum
Artists: Helena Almeida, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Daniel
Blaufuks, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Duchamp, Allan McCollum, Chantal Joffe,
Tracy Moffatt, José Luís Neto, Gabriel Orozco, Pedro Quintas, Umrao Singh
Sher-Gil, Augusto Alves da Silva, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Vivan Sundaram, Jemima
Stehli, Wolf Vostell, Robert Wilson, Francesca Woodman