Curated by Paula Parente Pinto and contribution of Vítor Silva,

CAAA Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitectura (Guimarães), 2019

 

 

The exhibition observes the trips and metamorphoses of a small format photographic image - “The Principle of Shadow” - captured by José Barrias in Germany in 1970. As a reason in transit through the artist's work, this projection of a body in motion reappears in other supports and formats. It manifests itself in a plurality of existences: in documents, traces or finished work; the same visual reference taking on new material conditions. The understanding of José Barrias' art and work method is mirrored in this cumulative mutation of the shadows, which eventually assumes the contours of a biographical path.

This is the plot of 'Notas para a biografia de uma sombra': an exhibition that, from a unique and unrepeatable photographic image - the self-portrait of José Barrias as a shadow - reflects an open migration process through reproduction. In parallel with the way the author refers to other references in his artistic work, the shadow literally incorporates a dialectical relationship between presence and absence that defines the itinerancy of José Barrias' biographical path.