Riba de Ave

(2015-2017)

‘Riba de Ave’ presents a series of photographs of details of a space, apparently empty or abandoned. The space never fully revealed, merely suggested. In the absence of a panorama view or of characterizing features, the space is transformed into an ‘anywhere’ or, in other words, into a space that, whilst within the limits of that genre, could be something else. Thus, through this way of recording information, the space becomes representative of all similar spaces, and becomes able to tell a story of multiples.

The story that is told here, in the absence of a specified subject, is one of obsolescence. The space is found in a state of disuse, reduced to functionless aesthetics and awaiting its eventual ruin. Its architectural features tell of the end of an era, which is the same as saying the end of a ‘production method’. It is the story of national manufacturing being substituted by multinationals with factories headquartered in countries with lower labour costs. It is the story of an economic re-shaping that led to the bankruptcy of countless family-run companies. It is, in fact, the story of a Portugal at the start of 2000, a country that had suddenly turned to the service sector for the chance of survival, with the spoils of a past autonomy that had proliferated in the form of masons, metalworkers, ceramicists, weavers…now destitute in name and function.

Inkjet print on paper Fine Art . Different dimensions . Edition: 6+1AP

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