The Solar Cinematic Art Gallery presents, between July 8 and September 17, “Terra” (translated from the Portuguese as “Earth” but also “land”, “ground” and “soil”), a collective exhibition of a new generation of Portuguese authors: Gabriel Abrantes (in collaboration with Ben Rivers), Priscila Fernandes, Pedro Neves Marques, Joana Pimenta, Lúcia Prancha, Francisco Queimadela and Mariana Caló. The theme under which the set of installations is shaped – besides the obvious connotation with environmental issues – refers essentially to the local immersion, in the hometown, of images of the world with close significance to the work of these artists. It reveals, conceptually, a transposition of scale, place and time, as well as a motivation to work either for the cinema black box setting, or for the art gallery space.

Opening simultaneously with the 25th edition of Curtas Vila do Conde IFF and remaining open until September, this collective exhibition includes six site-specific installations, whose starting point are films but that are not necessarily pursued as projections. First, each work was conceived resonating on the land of its origin, on where it was imagined, filmed and created. Secondly, it reflects on the lands where it travels and halts, for a few months at least; inhabiting a space with evidences of its own history from a far or rather recent past (such is the history of exhibitions of the gallery). Therefore, the installations proceed from specific points of the planet, often distant, to be revealed in a specific place where they reach complexion in the whole that forms the Earth (Terra), and contributing as single elements to a wider and multifaceted idea. Solar Cinematic Art Gallery exhibitions have always generated intersections and interactions with the Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival programme. Due to inaugurating by the occasion of the festival opening, it indicates that the exhibition will take benefit of the greater flow of public for the festival, both national and international. This year, along with the great celebration of the 25th anniversary of Curtas Vila do Conde, Solar’s exhibition explores an appealing theme, highlighting a new generation of Portuguese authors, while articulating with an extensive program of films as a complementary proposal: a glimpse of a possible future.

Over 11 years, the Solar exhibition programme has been drawing different ways of reflecting on the paradigms of contemporary art, both national and internationally. Thereby it is pertinent to highlight a set of works and authors selected from a generation that is building potential intersections for the future between cinema and visual arts in Portugal. Consequently, this exhibition proposes a reflection on important issues to Solar’s editorial line, such as: The ethics regarding the environmental preservation as a transversal paradigm; The ambivalence of cinematographic works that may explore the context of the gallery space and the common use of cinema material/ technology to create an artwork; The experimentation of diversified sets that make the connection between the creative process and the completion of the work in an alternative and variable way, in a site-specific situation; The opportunity to introduce a wider audience to the work of young Portuguese artists and filmmakers who have already achieved some national and international reputation.

Mário Micaelo