Developing

(…) The last video of Bolos Quentes, Developing, with three minutes duration, differs from the previous ones for several reasons: it was not made or thought to respond to a client, it was presented in a space destined to the presentation of artistic projects and has a much more evident critical and narrative character than any other video from this collective.
The key to this work is the dichotomy, a concept that is explored through an exercise in comparing diametrically opposed situations or images. Espaço Campanhã in Porto and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as well as the negative and positive colors of the film itself, are the elements that clash most clearly. All the ideas in the video are amplified by the presence of a national flag in inverted colors (an original piece by João Marçal entitled A Maria and presented in 2006), informally carried by an individual (Duarte Amorim). This flag not only visually reinforces the opposition between positive and negative, but also introduces a critical and reflective potential, which refers to the artistic identity of the country (more specifically of the city of Porto), and its relationship with external contexts of great recognition. Developing, the title of the work, has a double meaning here, since it simultaneously refers to the process of developing the film (16 mm film, in this particular case) which always involves a relationship between negative/positive and a hypothetical revelation by an artist Portuguese abroad and in the world’s top art scene.
In addition to the video, in the exhibition at the Fundação, features a series of six photographic prints, enlarged from video frames. The selected images coincide exactly with the moment when the character passes behind a tree, being therefore partially, or even completely, hidden. Here, the solution found insists again on the possibility of a critique of national identity and visibility.

February, 2010
João Marcal

Year2010