Polar Star

The tradition of portraiture, and more specifically of self-portraiture, dates back to Dutch Renaissance painters. Before Michelangelo portrayed himself in his Sistine Chapel fresco, or even before Velásquez released the author's face (Las Meninas), Van Eyck portrayed himself — “the Dutch way”, that is, through reflection and miniature — in the Arnolfini wedding scene (Arnolfini Portrait, 1434). With this masterful scene, Van Eyck went from being a witness to a writer of stories — both social and religious, because for the first time in history, the artist became the perfect eyewitness, in the truest sense of the word. What is known about Humanity, to a large extent, is due to portraits, as well as religious paintings and worldly scenes.

I can understand the reasons that led the artist Albuquerque Mendes, one of the Portuguese names to emerge in the seventies, to merge the entire tradition of painting, self-portrait, religious rites with the action of performance. The artist's insight is to have transformed the moment into the perfect eyewitness of his time — where the aura of both the object and the artist flowed down the drain of history thin. This time, the artist bounces the merciless whip of history onto the body of the artist himself who, apparently, has forgotten his role as a shaman. Art, it's like in religion where sacred rites must be performed by those who hold magical powers, they must be exercised as a transformative performance. (...)

Paulo Reis
Rio de Janeiro, May 2002