View of the installation Crossing bridges at sundown at Capela do Espírito Santo in Quinta do Conventinho, Santo António dos Cavaleiros 2023


The installation Crossing bridges at sundown brings together three pieces - Birla Bhavan; Absolut taste of diversity, Shanghai and 5 pedras + Natura #9 - which sensorially dialogue with the space of the Capela do Espírito Santo at Quinta do Conventinho in Santo António dos Cavaleiros, through the vibration of colour.

The first piece, Birla Bhavan, a white cotton fabric with silk squares of different colors, represents a path towards new stimuli, as if it were a blank page and that is being filled with new ideas. The second piece, Absolut taste of diversity, Shanghai, is made up of eight large silk fabrics in different colors, formed by radial lines, which seek to convey the fascination for texture and color.
These two pieces are the result of trips to India and China, and the wonder that these two cultures provoke in me.

About the piece Birla Bhavan. In 2014, between January 21st and February 21st, I took my first trip to India. Visited: Chandigarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana states; Jaipur and the Taj Mahal, in the province of Rajasthan; Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh; Auroville, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and I made New Delhi my base, where I kept returning. In my travels, I used different means of transport, such as train, plane, auto rickshaws and car with driver, which allowed me to imagine, from these moving landscapes, a bit of the complexity of India.

At the National Gandhi Museum in New Delhi, dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, I bought a khadi cotton cloth. It was with handcrafted fabric that Gandhi boosted and spread the culture of Indian cotton, as a form of protest against English cotton and which became one of the struggles against the British occupation.
The house that is now the museum, is also called Birla Bhavan, and was Gandhi's residence, where he spent the last 144 days of his life, until his assassination on January 30, 1948.

The silk fabrics of different colors that are sewn on top of this cloth were
chosen and bought on one of the many trips I made to Shanghai. These fabrics are made by a group of women who work in a silk manufacturing factory.
I took these silk squares from Lisbon, conceived this artistic project in New Delhi, and they were sewn in Varanasi by a tailor. This piece tells the story of this journey, physical and mental, from imagination to realisation. From white to color stimulation. From India to China.

About the piece Absolut taste of diversity, Shanghai. In these 10 large silk fabrics, each one composed by eight radial colors, ranging from violet, moving through blue, blue green, jade green, aquamarine green, yellow, salmon, sienna to red, which, combined, create different visual games. This work plays with our sensation charged with psychological associations, where we attribute a characteristic to each color. Without worrying about forming harmonious chromatic chords, the colors chosen are the result of a wide range of accidents and allow me to say that there are no right or wrong color compositions. But of course it also plays with the “I like it, I don't like it” of the viewer. This piece also plays with the magic of seeing colors and their multiple chromatic compositions.

What I do is “Give form to colors”, like Matisse when referring to his painting. Since my colorful forms are heirs to an artistic tradition that goes through Abstract Art and that have an autonomous visual language without relation to the real world.

5 stones + Natura #9, they are a garden. This group of 5 white quartz stones marks a place of veneration, with the visual environment amplified by the sound of Natura #9, of running water and chirping birds. The five white quartz are so mysterious. Due to the phenomenon of triboluminescence, when they rub against each other, they cause a spark and an intense burning smell is released.

Ana Perez-Quiroga
Figueira da Foz, July 28, 2023