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Painting is a visible body, one that is palpable and requires a physical presence. However, it has also been able to relate to and call upon other forms of production, not only of images, but also of critical discourse. Without having abandoned the theoretical and practical presuppositions that are based on its materiality, it seems to me that, nowadays, these open themselves up to wide range of possibilities.
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History repeats itself, images too, with minor adjustments.
La Liberté Guidant le Peuple vs. Arab Spring / Occupy Wall Street
Le Radeau de la Meduse vs. immigration routes on overcrowded boats
What unites and what separates the representation of an event mediated by art (the paintings of Géricault and Delacroix, separated from the observer by the frame that is imposed by the museum) and the cruder representation of an event mediated by the news channels: the illusion that we are witnessing everything live, as if we were in the place itself, is nothing more than this, an illusion. The separation between event and spectator also has a place here, no longer being effected through the frame and the sense of security that are provided by the museum, but instead through the television screen and the four walls of our home.
In LIVRO / BARCO / REVOLUÇÃO, I have brought to the work table the painting of history, the history of painting, and fragments of the contemporary world. I have added the presence of the spectator. And I have imagined a history with painting inside.
Carlos Correia
