Pedro Valdez Cardoso

Expedition, 2015

This project aims to create a device around a tapestry work. This is the central point of the conceptual and formal development of the works that constitute the installation. The Polar Regions have, since the XIX century, accompanied the cultural and social imaginary; the concepts generated around these geographical areas belong to the domains of utopia and science. A distant place, almost inhabited, where the preservation of fossils, made possible by the low temperatures, generates the discovery of the origins of mankind in this planet.

From the notion of expedition and archaeological excavation and accompanied by the museum documental logics an installation was created. A large tapestry with images of an archaeological station occupies the center of the room. Different objects that simulate objects of an expedition are displayed around: a rock with human bones, a book of notes, a back pack, a pair of boots and a mask. There is also a slide show with images edited from several expeditions to the North and South poles in the XX century.

In Expedition it is proposed a deconstruction of what is today’s normal usage of a tapestry as an artistic media, a media which is mainly associated with the decorative or with the mere reproduction of an existing work of painting. Here we can see an appropriation of the media in its formal specificities, an understanding of its limits and discursive possibilities as well as of its history. Tapestry has served for a long time as a memorial space of historic episodes. Here this place of heroic fixation does not exist, not even the simulation of a painting. What exists is the idea of document, map and drawing, in other words the place for the search for knowledge.


BIOGRAPHY

Pedro Valdez Cardoso (Lisboa, 1974). Lives and works in Lisboa. From his individual exhibitions stand out: outra coisa, Galeria Caroline Pagès, Lisboa, PT (2014); Reino, Convento de Cristo, Tomar, PT (2014); The Devil’s Breath – Parte III, MACE – Museu de Arte contemporânea de Elvas, PT (2014); Discurso do Método, IVAM – Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valência, ES (2013); Pedra que rola não cria limo, Galeria do Parque/Fundação EDP, Vila Nova da Barquinha, PT (2013); Quarto sem vista, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Funchal, Madeira, PT (2011); O Peso da História, Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto, PT (2011); Crude, Museu da Cidade/Pavilhão Branco, Lisboa, PT (2007). The collective art exhibitions where he participated in includes: Colónia Apócrifa, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Castilla Y Leon, ES (2014); Paisagem e Natureza, Museu de Évora, Évora, PT (2013); Para Além da Historia, Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Guimarães, PT (2012); O Fim do Mundo, Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster, LUX (2012); O Rio Voador, Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra, Coimbra, PT (2012);  MUITO OBRIGADO – Artistas portugueses en la colección de la Fundación Coca-Cola, DA2 Domus Artium, Salamanca, ES (2010); Do Séc.XVII ao Séc.XXI: além do tempo, dentro do Museu, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Porto, PT (2009); Opções & Futuros – Obras da Colecção PLMJ, Museu da Cidade, Lisboa, PT (2009); Café Portugal, Design Factory, Bratislava, Eslovénia / Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Évora e Museu Carlos Machado, Ponta Delgada, Açores, PT (2008); Where are you From? – Contemporary  Art from Portugal, Faulconer Gallery, Grinel College, Iowa, USA (2008); Jardim Aberto, Palácio de Belém, Lisboa, PT (2007); Lisboa.Luanda.Maputo, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisboa, PT (2007); Entre a Palavra e a Imagem, Fundación Luís Seoane, La Coruña, ES (2006). He is represented in different national and international collections, and is the owner of several Art awards.

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