The exhibition 'Entre a Água e a Terra' brings together two artists who, due to the singularity of their work, seem to walk parallel tracks, of authentic nature, in a search for a return to simplicity, the moment and stillness. By quietude, I don't mean accommodation or lethargy but rather fullness and peace.
Maritza Caneca is a photographer with a career on and off the film set. She has worked as a director of photography for three decades, and her personal work has escaped into a more conceptual search for the fullness that water brings when we think of it in an architectural framework. This thought made the artist start a search for beautiful spaces, serene and fascinating architectural moments (monuments) where man builds harmony with water. The liberation that the aquatic environment exerts on us and the place where this catharsis occurs is Maritza Caneca's body of work. She captures the moment when the human element is no longer present and has abandoned the space after using it. The emptiness, apparently cold, denounces this presence or only suggests it (the wet floor or some abandoned object). Other times one cannot guess if the moment has already happened or if it is just waiting to happen. In all this way, Maritza ends up not only revealing the spaces, but she goes a bit further, bringing before us the whole soul, history (as), memories and futures.
Mariza currently lives between Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Lisbon.
Daniel Mattar is a photographer who has dedicated himself in the last years to unveiling landscapes that our daily reality does not know. As men, we are victims of routines, in a constant repetition of gestures and acts, victims of the tempos fugit that condition us and mould our senses. We are rarely awakened to appreciate the silence, the movement of the tides or other activities not in line with the busy lives and careers we pursue.
Daniel Mattar is from another time. His work meanders between the visible reality and the unseen real that exists. The imaginary real, I could say.
Mattar's photographs are surprising at first sight. We are led to deciphering the landscapes. Are the paths arteries of pulsating blood currents or rivers of hot lava? Further ahead, do we see endless mountain ranges or the deepest fissures of the oceans?
Time, moment, utopia and dream. Pieces of micro landscapes are revealed before the lens, scrutinising everything without hiding anything.
Daniel Mattar, born in Rio de Janeiro, lives and works in Lisbon.
Entre a Água e a Terra, which Brisa Galeria presents, is the happy encounter between two exceptional artists, with the ability to surprise without warning, to raise questions and, throughout the process, to give the observer moments that are fulfilling and moving.
Rui Guerreiro, 2021
Curator and Text: Rui Guerreiro
Exhibition set-up: Pedro Canoilas
Realization: Brisa Galeria
