“Two days walking north, two days walking south. Atlantic coast Portugal, January full moon 1994.” Hamish Fulton’s (b. 1946) collage Tide Line (1994-2005) documents his journey across the Portuguese coastline. Since 1972, the English artist has dedicated his practice to creating an artistic record of his travels on foot around the world. A walking artist, his approach is distinct from the landscape interventions we have seen many contemporaries take. Fulton seeks to avoid disturbing his surroundings by leaving no trace of his presence. In this way, he transforms his experiences into visually striking drawings, photographs and murals. In the case of Tide Line, the black text borders the titular phrase in the centre, which sits over the top of the bright blue background. It’s a piece that asks: how do we relate to our surroundings?
Fulton’s collage welcomes visitors as they set foot into the recently reopened Centro De Arte Moderno (CAM) in Lisbon, Portugal. Redesigned by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma (b. 1954), gallery-goers enter a space that is built to exist in harmony with nature. This autumn, CAM unveils a series of grand exhibitions that celebrate the opening of its doors to the public. Amongst these is Tide Line. The term refers to the demarcation where two currents meet on the high seas. Taking inspiration from this phrase and Fulton’s work, this exhibition picks up from the 1974 Carnation Revolution and traces the event’s impact upon the present. Artists reflect on ongoing revolutions and, especially, those related to the state of the planet. Large installations set the rhythm and imply connections to be found with neighbouring artworks. The ideas that framed the choice of works link to: Transgression (of the Portuguese dictatorship), Manifesto (the first Portuguese artistic ecological manifesto), Interiority (of the experience proposed by the artwork), Mutation (technological, post-human) and Evocation (of a real connection with the living world).
For some artists, the water offers an abundant metaphor, drawing attention to migration, history and our relationship with the land we call home. Mónica De Miranda’s (b. 1976) artist film Path to the Stars (2023) follows the journey of a heroine confronted by her own shadow. From dawn to dusk, we accompany a woman who was an ex-combatant in the Angolan struggle for liberation. By boat, she travels past the banks of the Kwanza River, the birthplace of the Ndongo kingdom, a pre-colonial African tributary state of the Kongo kingdom, created by sub-groups of the Ambundu and led by King Ngola. Various characters appear throughout this journey: a shadow, an old woman and a child, soldiers who try to read their future in the lines of a map of Angola, and an astronaut, all of whom spin their stories in the murmur of the river.
This exhibition is all about fluidity. It invities visitors to meander through the space like a river. Diogo Passarinho Studio have transformed the conventional gallery into an organic place where the relationship with the living world is recovered and questioned. On display are over 80 works from leading creatives, such as De Miranda, Filipa César, Graça Pereira Coutinho, and Paulo Nozolino. Each piece invites us to engage in personal reflection and follow our own connections between them. This is a show that call us to think about the concept of change, from the longterm impact of revolutions to the climate emergency.
Centro De Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Tide Line. CAM Collection | Until 11 May
Image Credits:
Mónica de Miranda, still from Path to the stars, 2022. CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, inv. 22IM111. © Mónica de Miranda.
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