This publication accompanies the exhibition Mater (Lisbon, 2023), curated by João Rolaça – Oficinas do Convento, at Pavilhão Branco from March 23 to June 11, 2023.
It contains texts by Catarina Rosendo, João Rolaça, Margarida Mendes, Sara Antónia Matos and Teresa Projecto as well as a visual essay made by each of the artists.
“The pieces by the three artists for the exhibition Mater refer explicitly to the bodily effort and physical exertion required in the transformation of matter. The latter involves the body but is of a necessarily incorporeal nature because it entails processes of loss and mourning that art seeks to capture.”
– Sara Antónia Matos
“The works of Virgínia Fróis, Marta Castelo and Maja Escher have in common the intimate and profound relationship they establish with the earth and natural elements, which they use as a medium and as content for continuous conceptual research. They have a dual complementary nature, both material and symbolic.”
– João Rolaça
“Virgínia Fróis is a sculptor who works manually. She uses her body and the energy that emanates from it as an instrument and link between herselfand the materials she handles. Material, technical and relational questions are of great importance in the way she approaches sculpture and how she understands what is generically defined as art.”
– Catarina Rosendo
“Water opens the earth to the hand, makes it plastic. Water opens the earth to human life, makes it fertile. But water – as Marta shows us – also reminds us that brick – that body made of earth to begin the construction of a house, the drawing and writing of the city – disintegrates when raw. It shows us the interval – liquid or liquefied – between fired earth and raw earth. Water reminds us that clay is alive. And that it is not, therefore, merely matter.”
– Teresa Projecto
“Maja Escher’s body of work comprises signs and elements built in clay that extend from stamps, to printed word, protest banners, and celebration garments to be activated in distinct
actions and street celebrations. These recombined signs utter phrases and life mottos introduced in rites convoked by the artist through her prolific action.”
– Margarida Mendes