For the finissage of the exhibition I arrived as a stranger and during the Lisbon Art Weekend, Galerias Municipais announce a conversation with José Gil. Gil also contributed to the exhibition publication:
“Conefrey’s pieces are a counterpoint to Calapez’ thanks to Sérgio Fazenda Rodrigues installation, which aims at the greatest possible complexity: the visitor participates in the “choreography” prepared by the curator. In each room, the trajectory is from Calapez’ “involving” paintings to Conefrey’s small pieces arranged at different heights from the floor. The movement is from the visible unity (and virtual plurality) of Calapez’ canvases to Conefrey’s real multiplicity, the visitor’s body being the translator of this to-and-fro. When two gazes intersect to form a third, the obscure background diffracts into manifold images: the journey multiplies the trajectories”
José Gil is Senior Research Fellow at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, where he taught Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art and Modern and Contemporary Philosophy. He is the author of various books on Philosophy of the Body (Metamorfoses do Corpo, Relógio d’Agua, 1997; publ. in French, Ed. de la Différence, 1985; English ed., Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1998), Monstros, Rel. d’Ag., 2006; Italian ed.: Besa Editrice, 2000), on Fernando Pessoa’s Poetics (Fernando Pessoa e a Metafísica das Sensações, Rel. d’Ag.,1987; French ed.: La Différence, 1989), O Espaço Interior, Presença, 1994, Diferença e Negação na Poesia de Fernando Pessoa, Rel. d’Ag., 1999; Brazialian ed: Relume Dumará, 2000), on Dance Aesthetics (Movimento total, Rel. d’Ag., 2001; Braz. Ed.: Relume Dumará, 2003), on Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art (“Sem título”, Rel. d’Ag., 2005; (with Ana Godinho) O Humor e a Lógica dos Objectos de Duchamp, Rel. d’Ag./IFl, 2011, and on Deleuze’s Phisophy (O Imperceptível Devir da Imanência, Rel. D’Ag., 2008). His present work is focused on aesthetical problems and the ontological requisites for a Philosophy of the Body.