Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Mercury

Image caption
JOãO MARIA Y PEDRO GUSMãO Y PAIVA

Mercury

  • 2009
  • Colour chromogenic copy
  • 140 x 180 cm
  • Edition 5/6
  • Cat. F_151
  • Acquired in 2013
By:
Isabel Tejeda

Joâo Maria Gusmâo (1979) and Pedro Paiva (1977) are a Portuguese duo who joined forces in 2001 at the University of Lisbon. Their work invites viewers to question their capacity for perception, presenting scenes and elements charged with mystery that force the imagination to work. They describe their sculptures, films, photographs and installations as 'poetic-philosophical fictions', reflecting their fascination with the inexplicable and even the paranormal. Their latest projects are based on 'abysmology', a neologism coined by writer René Daumal (1908-1944) to describe the invented study of the 'abyss'. This science seeks to redefine spirituality by studying the limits of perception and the magic of things. In the works of Gusmdo and Paiva we see everyday situations and objects onto which layers of fiction are superimposed, turning them into extraordinary worlds.

In Mercury (2009), a pair of hands appear to be scooping up mercury instead of water, perhaps to wash the subject's face or quench their thirst.

Isabel Tejeda

 
By:
Roberto Díaz
João Maria y Pedro Gusmão y Paiva
Lisbon 2001

João Maria Gusmão (b. Lisbon, 1979) and Pedro Paiva (b. Lisbon, 1977) both attended painting classes at the School of Fine Art in the University of Lisbon. They began working together in 2001, when they took part in the 'In Memory' group exhibition at Galeria Zé dos Bois in Lisbon. Their most widely distributed works are their short films shot in 16 mm, their photographs and their multiple projections, which they call 'camarae obscurae'. These depict what they call 'poetic philosophical fictions', alluding to multiple conceptual references related to perception, the unconscious and scientific, pseudo-scientific and paranormal phenomena, with allusions to the pre-Socratic atomists, Isaac Newton's treatises on residual optics, Darwin's theory of evolution, Henri Bergson's reflections on the interaction of perception and memory, the thinking of Alfred Jarry and his 'pataphysics', and the 'abysmology' of René Daumal. These are achieved through small details of reality, anodyne characters and moments transfigured from everyday life, in an undefined zone between reality and artifice. They offer an ironic reflection on the contradictions between what we perceive and what we believe to be true and, by extension, the inconsistencies of the homogenising discourse of the media, creating paradoxes with a strong sense of visual magnetism.

They two first came to international prominence when they represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale (2009), and they have held exhibitions at the Museu do Chiado (Lisbon, 2005); Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art (Leon, 2007); the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (San Francisco, USA, 2008); Kunstverein Hannover (Hannover, 2009); the Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, UK, 2010); Hangar Biccoca (Milan, Italy, 2014); the Camden Arts Centre (London, 2015); and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2015). Their work has also been shown at a number of international events such as the São Paulo Biennial (2006); Manifesta 7 (Rovereto, Italy, 2008); the Venice Biennale (2009, 2013); and the Gwangju Biennial (South Korea, 2010).

Roberto Díaz

 
«Art Basel 43», Art Basel (Basel, 2012). «(UN)COMMON VALUES. Two Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art», National Bank of Belgium (Brussels, 2022).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.