Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
Download here the Visitor's guide. - Les Ateliers de Rennes
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72<br />
<strong>Les</strong> Prairies's artists<br />
FRANCISCO TROPA<br />
Terra Platónica, 2012. Courtesy of <strong>the</strong> artist and galery Quadrado Azul, Porto. Photography : Guilherme Carmelo.<br />
Production<br />
<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Ateliers</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Rennes</strong> 2012.<br />
Portuguese artist Francisco Tropa's art is a perfect contemporary example of what Harald<br />
Szeemann <strong>de</strong>scribed as individual mythology. Tropa not only creates objects, he also draws<br />
up constellations of specific references through which i<strong>de</strong>ally <strong>the</strong> objects can be interpreted.<br />
In spite of <strong>the</strong> potentially esoteric nature of his works he is not a mystic. The sources of his<br />
sculptures, performances, photographs, drawings and printings are to be found in <strong>the</strong> history<br />
of <strong>the</strong> media he uses, in classical art, philosophy and literature, as well as in classic <strong>the</strong>mes<br />
such as memento mori, ritual, games and time. The striking and enigmatic Terra Platonica<br />
(2012) inclu<strong>de</strong>s a number of Tropa's preoccupations – <strong>the</strong> classical technique of cast bronze, and<br />
questions of ritual and temporality. The piece was inspired by a strange photograph by Edward<br />
S. Curtis illustrating an obscure funeral rite, from his famous series on North American Indians.<br />
Tropa ma<strong>de</strong> a cast from something representing <strong>the</strong> mummy curled into <strong>the</strong> foetal position. It is<br />
displayed <strong>here</strong> hanging from cables. The title refers to pre-Copernican belief in a flat Earth at<br />
<strong>the</strong> centre of <strong>the</strong> universe. Curtis's total incomprehension of <strong>the</strong> mysterious rite could be seen<br />
as comparable, as if it were a microcosmic analogy with <strong>the</strong> pre-Copernican mo<strong>de</strong>l.<br />
C. S. tr. J.H.<br />
Born in 1968 in Lisbon (Portugal), w<strong>here</strong> he lives and works.