Originally published in Folha de S. Paulo, Ilustrada, September 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is always important to know the what. But, in art the how tends to be even more so. But anywhere, the least you need to start with are the where and the when. The thing is, Carlito Carvalhosa\u2019s Faz Parte [1] is made with very little and puts all that is basic \u2013 and even what is not \u2013 under an un-decidable regime of alternacy and complementarity. The work is presently on display at the Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud. For a time it was also on show at the Galeria Millan, in a form very similar to that at the Gabinete: in both cases, working with a duplication of the galleries\u2019 white cubes, in doorless, almost entirely hollow spaces outlined by thin, translucent fabric, with the aid of a cold light and occasionally crossed by a casual sort of background noise that does not seem to come from there. A sound in passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the differences soon arise, referring one to the other. At Galeria Millan, the light comes from above, in three conjugated spaces, not all of which are empty: one of them contains some round plates of glass, like huge lenses, piled up on the floor. At Gabinete de Arte, the lenses are set on a table and low base, and they stand outside the space circumscribed by the drapery, which is now a single area, with two sources of light, one at the front and the other at the back of this room-within-a-room. Along the other two sides, behind the fabric, the gallery walls are clad with mirrors, one clear and the other darkened. Walking through the narrow corridor which remains between the white fabric and the bare wall of the first gallery, and the fabric and mirror-lined walls in the other, affords perceptibly different sensations, as does lifting up the drapery and slipping inside the fabric rooms of either venue. Further more, the sounds in one gallery are recorded in the other by an open microphone after closing hours and played back at the other on the following day in the first gallery, and vice-versa, in a sort of gap of time and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the differences are impurities of the white. Not so many as to cancel the relationship of participation between the two venues. It is as if, upon entering the place, where not much happens, all we were only offered a shoddy \u201cthis is this\u201d. Yet if there is (or there was, never mind) a near-twin of this space out there somewhere, we are also given a \u201cthis is that\u201d. Lingering awhile longer there, the experience of an embodied AND\/OR may begin to flourish. And it might be many things, except peaceful. Differences arise because there is little in each part, so little that each now, each here, each this, each that is a lot \u2013 no matter in which gallery it happens to be. \u201cFaz parte\u201d [\u201cIt happens\u201d], the mal-resigned grumble of everyday life, now comes to include \u201cfazer a parte\u201d [\u201cmake the part\u201d], create the piece as a whole, here and now, considering the lenses and visible wires as leftovers that, after all, are also part, reminding us that there is another part there and then. This hardly seems strange in the scheduled mis-encounter that has long characterized Carlito\u2019s work. Nor does that way of life growingly immersed in the volatility of presence, in which we are sometimes capable of ressucitating that cortazarian [2] feeling of not being fully there, and of making of the slightest sign an event.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n<\/p><\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"decada":[5],"class_list":["post-4049","texto","type-texto","status-publish","hentry","decada-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/texto\/4049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/texto"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/texto"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/texto\/4049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4051,"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/texto\/4049\/revisions\/4051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"decada","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acervocarlitocarvalhosa.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/decada?post=4049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}