“Meia Sombra” marks the transition from light to darkness, a twilight or penumbra, which in the context of nature refers to an intermediate lighting condition between full light and complete shadow. It is under the sign of this mediated process that the first exhibition in the cycle Desconcentrar – From the CGD Collection unfolds, proposing re-centralised perspectives on the intensities, energies, and vibrations of the Serra do Caramulo. In a gesture that seeks to bring the mountain into the interior of the museum, the work developed in residence and now presented in the exhibition Half-Shadow – From the CGD Collection by artists Joana da Conceição, Maria Paz Aires and Teresa Arêde inscribes other forms of life, agencies and forces, in dialogue with the natural surroundings of the Museu do Caramulo, re-establishing a connection with the various rhythms of the mountain and the testimonies and memories of its communities.
Rooted in a way of being together that is tied to multiple temporalities and transformative states, this exhibition engages with a non-historical understanding of place, invoking an eternal, self-sufficient, ecosystemic, indissoluble, and cyclical nature. In the joint installation by Joana da Conceição and Maria Paz Aires, a constellation of various nuclei is formed, which, by deconstructing the notion of the whole and based on the idea of alterity, inhabits the museum through a female, anthropomorphic, ancestral and guttural figure composed of the materiality of nature. Teresa Arêde’s works also emerge from a feminine perspective, incorporating a communal sound piece as well as elements associated with weeping, moss and stones – all of which symbolise a networked action of the mountain. These works are thus intimately connected to a shared body of knowledge that dismantles a closed notion of authorship, whether through pieces created in collaboration with local craftspeople or through a participatory intervention with AMA – the Association of Women Farmers of Castelões, taking place during the exhibition opening in the gardens in front of the Museu do Caramulo. This event will be a communal gathering in which the community comes together to cultivate the flax flower, which will grow throughout the exhibition and be harvested at its closing.
Meanwhile, works by Ana Jotta and Von Calhau!, both from the CGD Collection, bring forth other unfathomable imaginaries of the land, complemented by pieces from the Museu Terras de Besteiros, originating from different forms of material culture of the region, and evoking traditional arts and crafts such as flax production, basketry, and pottery.
“Meia Sombra” is thus bound to the generosity of the land – the land that allows a flower to become a linen cloth. It speaks of an ethic rooted in nature and based on the gift: a gesture of giving that rests on sharing, supporting, and offering, rather than on withholding, selecting, or excluding, unfolding in a continuous act of generosity and hospitality.” (Sara Castelo Branco, curator)