Da Fuga e do Encontro: Inversões do Olhar

Rui Calçada Bastos

is an exhibition brought forth by the NOVO BANCO Contemporary Photography Collection and investigates the nature and procedures of a contemplative stare. Based on a search for what involves the act of seeing – from an analytical selection, to a melancholic reflection, or to the possibility of a wholesomeness – the idea of this exhibition departs from an objective perception towards a transcendent one.
To look is to operate a mental control that sets a distance, captures a moment and focus upon a situation. Staring implies a mode of selecting and naming things, but to hold the gaze upon something means to capture it beyond its appearance, beholding its inner nature.
The idea supporting the notion of Escape and Concurrence refers to what emerges from the moment when the action is abandoned and the gaze is set free, or to the instant where the focus of our attention is set out of focus. In fact, that is the precise moment when one directs the gaze, no longer outwards, but inwards, and where one explores the image no longer in an analytical mode, but in an emotional one.
Grounded on the relations between the one who sees, the ways of seeing, and the things that are seen, this exhibition seeks to find out what in each work promotes an uncertain boundary. Questioning the nature of the image, the ways of seeing, and the condition of the observer.