Gravedigger, it is beautiful to gaze upon the ruins of the cities;
but how even more beautiful to gaze upon the ruins of humans!*
2011
The representations, somehow urbanized wastelands of abandoned industrial complexes or simply ruined, obsolete, timeworn buildings submitted to the voracious effects of time and nature, present us scenes prone to exploration and discovery, confronting us with the uncomfortable and the unfamiliar. The discomfort of what the human hand has left behind arises in the viewer as the hygienic and comfortable life in the functional metropolis is comparatively recognized. A reflection on strangeness is suggested, only to find out, as far as it concerns me, that that same strangeness is an intrinsic part of the human.
Untitled - Pen, Indian Ink on Paper
42 cm x 30cm
Under The Influence Of: André Catarino & Tiago Baptista
Exhibition at João Cocteau, April 2013, Berlin
Text by Tiago Rosa
Here, in Catarino's work, abandonment is a piece for construction, something which in real life we rather steer clear from it then to embrace it. In these drawings we are carried off to embrace it. An open landscape or the interior of an architectural structure become inner experiences to the viewer in contact with such images.
The artist totally spawns our curiosity and incites us to adventure. An interior adventure, though nonetheless an adventure. A growing feeling of wanting to know what lies behind each dark entrance and exquisite structure can definitely not be ignored.”
*Os Cantos de Maldoror, (p. 51), Conde de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse), Quasi Edições