Washing anything is a timeless purification ritual. It is also a symbol for the cleaning and purification of the behavior of the psyche, as well as the cycles of life-death-life renewal. In Observar os sons da lua e da água. E os que vêm de dentro, the performative gestures of a woman’s body that washes and scrubs, guided by the archetype of Hestia, who personifies the “guardian of the house”, are subverted here: in frantic and powerful gestures performed sometimes with frictions of a body that sweeps the floor, now, with clothes that wash the back, the dress that gives back the moon’s shine, the sleeve of a coat that rubs the thighs and pubis, and, the hair that strokes the hands. The sounds, produced and amplified, looks like the howling of a wolf, the gnashing of teeth, the squeak of a door, along with the drumming of the adufe (portuguese percussion musical instrument) and the voice of the tradicional singer (cantadeira), lead to a ritualistic journey — to a world below the trees.

biografia

Sónia Carvalho (1978, PT). Visual artist, teacher, researcher [ID+ (UA/DeCA] and CIEBA]. PhD in Fine Arts, specializing in Painting, from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, with a research grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology. Master in Drawing and Printing Techniques from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. Graduate in Fine Arts from the Higher School of Arts and Design of Caldas da Rainha of the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. She also received a scholarship from the Erasmus program at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. Sónia Carvalho develops a transdisciplinary practice, from performance to video, from meditation to painting, centered on research into the representation (action) of the body and rite, and the study of symbols and archetypes of the feminine spiritual universe, in the context of contemporary art and culture (namely, in the interaction between art and technology - for the creation of the image and moving images). Artist represented by the contemporary art gallery Zet Gallery, UmbigoLab magazine, and ANAMNESE. Award-winning artist, standing out with the acquisition prize at the XXII Bienal de Arte de Cerveira, 2022. Sónia has exhibited her work since 2002. Carvalho’s work belongs to several Portuguese collections, notably the Foundation PLMJ, the Biennial Foundation of Cerveira, and the EMERGE Cultural Association. With the artistic project Struggle Like A (Wo)Man #1, 2019, she was selected under the creation stimulus program promoted by the Municipal Council of Torres Vedras, Portugal; in the same year, she participated in the Cleaning The House workshop by artist Marina Abramovic, in Greece. In 2020, she participated in the first digital residency — the international artistic residency OCA (1st digital version) – Transmetatlanticus, Brazil/Portugal, produced by the EMERGE association in partnership with Casa Niemeyer – University of Brasília. She has participated in several international events as a speaker and as an artist.

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