TIME AND MANNER

Catarina Botelho (Portugal)

For the EPEA, Catarina Botelho produced the series O tempo e o modo [Time and Manner], comprising seven images made in a hamam, a traditional bathhouse, in Istanbul. The photographer was not concerned with the activities that took place, nor with the people who frequent or work in the hamam, but focussed instead on the various simple and banal objects, such as plates, jars and bottles, plastic buckets and baskets and brooms, that are used there every day. The general tone is one of a kind of timelessness, an evocation of spaces and practices which date back to the fifteenth century. The absence of people, and the way in which the objects are isolated against the backdrop of stone that covers the wall and floors of the hamam, lead us to perceive the image in terms of the formal, chromatic and tonal characteristics of the objects, and their position within this setting dominated by stone – scenes, in other words, that induce a confrontation between the ephemeral, fragile and vulgar nature of these objects, and the durability, strength and nobility of the stone, a repository of the past, like a space marked by multiple temporalities.

Sergio Mah

CATARINA BOTELHO Graduated in painting from Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa in 2004. In 2007 did the advanced photography course of Ar.Co. Has attended the photography course of Gulbenkian’s Creativity and Artistic Creation Programme in 2008. As exhibit her work since 2005. In 2007 wins the Bes Revelação Prize, exhibiting her work at Fundação de Serralves, Oporto. In that same year presents her first solo show at Galeria Modulo, Lisbon. In 2009 presents Useful Days at Rua Anchieta 31, in Lisbon. In 2010 is selected for Plat(T)form 10 at the Winterthur Museum and is an artist in residency at Budapest Gallery in Budapest/Cml. In 2011 is nominated for the EDP New Artist Prize and in 2012 for the European Photo Exhibition Award, to be held at Haus der Photographie em Hamburg. Also in 2012 wins the Elba Benitez Gallery Open Call for PhotoEspaña. In 2013 is one of the artists in residency at FAAP, São Paulo

Site: www.catarina-botelho.blogspot.pt