Vasco Araújo. Re Cordum: Voltar ao Coração

Vasco Araújo’s exhibition, Re Cordum: Voltar ao Coração [To return to the heart], presents works that explore relationships of power, dependence and submission, whether in the midst of social and family settings, or based on the notions of exoticism and alterity.

The exhibition’s title refers to the double meaning of the Latin expression Re Cordum, translated as “to return to the heart”, also embracing the more manifest meaning of remembrance, memory. In this sense, the voice is the means by which each character and object materializes internal conflicts, reflecting about their own condition, in relation to themselves and the Other.

The exhibition is set by fictions aroused from the specific memory conveyed by a particular character or object, as in the compositions from reproductions of portraits by Eduardo Malta, a painter associated with the ideology of the Estado Novo [i.e., the Portuguese Dictatorship Regime], and portraitist of the society close to the circles of power at that time. Other composite objects allude to the topic of exoticism, underlining the inherent contraction that spurs from the different origins of their constituent elements.

Re Cordum: Voltar ao Coração is Vasco Araújo’s first solo exhibition at Baginski Gallery / Projects.

Vasco Araújo (Lisbon, 1975) lives and works in Lisbon, PT.

In 1999 completed a degree in Sculpture by the FBAUL, having between 1999 and 2000 attended the Advanced Course in Visual Arts of Maumaus, in Lisbon, PT. Since then has participated in several solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and abroad, having as well participated in Artistic Residencies such as Récollets, Paris, FR (2005), and Core Program, Houston, USA(2003/04). In 2003 was awarded with the EDP Novos Artistas Prize.

The following solo exhibitions are highlighted: Under The influence of Psyche, Power Plant Gallery, Toronto, CA; Botânica, MNAC – Museu do Chiado, Lisboa, PT (2014); Debret, Pinacoteca do Estado de S. Paulo, S. Paulo, BR (2013); Avec les voix de l’autre, Musée d’art de Joliette, Joliette, FR (2011); Mais que a vida, Centro de Arte Moderna – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, PT, and MARCO, Vigo, ES (2010) ; Eco, Jeu de Paume, Paris, FR (2008); Vasco Araújo: Per-Versions, the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, USA (2008); About being Different, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2007); Pathos, Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, ES (2006); Dilemma, S.M.A.K., Gent, BE; L’inceste, Museu do Azulejo, Lisboa, PT; The Girl of the Golden West, The Suburban, Chicago, USA (2005); Dilema, Museu de Serralves, Porto, PT (2004); Sabine/ Brunilde, SNBA, Lisboa, PT (2003).

The following group exhibitions are selected: All that Falls, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR; Barroque, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm , SE (2014); Sob o Signo de Amadeo, Centro de Arte Moderna, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, PT; Super 8, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, BR; Sincronias: Artistas Portugueses en la Colección António Cachola, MEIAC, Badajoz, ES (2013); Riso, Fundação EDP, Lisboa, PT (2012); Investigations of a Dog, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT (2009); Everything has a name, or the potential to be named, Gasworks, London, UK (2009); Em Vivo Contacto, 28th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, BR (2008); Artes Mundi, Wales International Visual Art Exhibition and Prize, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, UK (2008); Kara Walker and Vasco Araújo: Reconstruction, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA (2007); Drei Farben – Blau, XIII Rohkunstbau, Grobleuthen, DE (2006); Experience of Art, 51th Venice Biennale, Venezia, IT; Dialectics of Hope: 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, RU (2005); Solo (For Two Voices), CCS, Bard College (2002), New York, USA; The World Maybe Fantastic: Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, AU (2001); Trans Sexual Express, Barcelona 2001, a classic for the Third millennium, Centre d’Art Santa Mónica, Barcelona, ES (2001).

His work is featured in several books and catalogues and represented in private and Public Collections, such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée d’Art Modern, Paris, FR; Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Centro de Arte, Madrid, ES; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, EUA, Pinacoteca do Estado de S. Paulo, BR; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, PT; Fundação de Serralves, Porto, PT; Fundação EDP, Lisboa, PT; Museu Colecção Berardo, Arte Moderna e Contemporânea, Lisboa, PT; Fundación Centro Ordóñez-Falcón de Fotografía – COFF, ES, among others.

With the voices of:

Ana Isabel Strindberg, André e. Teodósio, Cláudia Jardim, Diogo Bento, Joana Barrios, Joana Dilão, Letícia da Costa Gonçalves, Mariana Sá Nogueira, Patrícia da Silva, Paula Sá Nogueira, Pedro Penim, Vasco Araújo