Enchantments, talismans and resonances particular to intimate friendships celebrate a sacred universe created together and revealed in Suspiro, an exhibition by Bárbara Faden and Rita Paisana. The sign of an ardent desire suggests a state between passion and discomfort – storm and tranquillity – shaped in a dialogue of gleaming interlaces. The intersection of reproducing nature with the fantasy and experience of the artists marks at the same time a sensorial and imaginative [1] exhibition, the dreamy and at times abstract facet inspire an adolescent impulse, existential dilemmas and melting hearts, in the intensity of their own feelings. Roots emerge and multiply with the passage of time, becoming ever more complex, while other connections go with the wind.

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Are the portals already a presage of altars? [2]

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Opening spaces to the mysteries of the matter, underwater landscapes and curtains ajar announce the portals. In Fireflies blinking on and off (2024), the circle formed by teardrop eyes emphasizes the spiritual sphere and the meditative facet of the large format paintings of Bárbara Faden. A plunge in the deep blue. Reflecting on the practice of painting in Água Viva (1973), Clarice Lispector says she is looking for the instant of an imminence that would take her breath, a search that keeps the flame alive and the devotion of the bewitched. Discoveries, thoughts, existential longings and pictorial interests are shared as in a diary written for someone. A treasure trove keeps in its velvety interior the gracefulness of the lived and relived thing [3], as if eating a fig straight from the tree and then lick the fingers, feeling the cracking of the sugar in the contemplation of the shared experience, sweet and intimate.

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In Suspiro, recurrent elements create a rhythm where gentleness coexists with the possibility of discerning intensified things, a fascination that often is lost as life goes by. Between the impact of a profound connection built over time, symbols and organic manifestations cross paths in this kind of celestial dimension. The immersive and emotional atmosphere, the sparkle of the glitter that marks the work of Rita Paisana and the profusion of colour bring us close to a universe of kaleidoscopic projections of Pipilotti Rist, their videoart experimentations and expansive installations. As daily sensorial ornaments, the displays covered in glacê and colourful sugar craft of Lisbon’s patisseries could be in the plans of Ever is over all (1997) or I’m a victim of this song (1995), with the artist’s visceral scream in the background, remembering the risk of burning themselves in the high fire that lives in romantic relationships and bringing, among poetic effects, the feminine strength as an alternative to an unequal system.

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World was on fire
And no one could save me but you. [4]

 

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[1] JUNG, Carl G. O homem e seus símbolos. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 2008.

[2] LISPECTOR, Clarice. Água Viva. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2019.

[3] Idem.

[4] I'm a victim of this song (1995). Pipilotti Rist e Andreas Guggisberg reinterpret Chris Isaak's Wicked Game (1989).