Espécimens II

"The artist trains his eye using his feet.

In 2011, I was staying in a hotel in downtown São Paulo, to attend the 17th edition of Videobrasil. Every morning, as I walked, I would see a group of people who slept under the marquee of a closed store next door to the hotel. They looked like the people who passed through my street, in João Pessoa, and like the people I see in Recife all the time. They would linger on the sidewalk (their non-shelter) until 9:30 or 10 am; they would ask for money and cigarettes, then disappear, and come back in the late afternoon. They will probably stick to the same routine until life renovates them. I remember there was a pregnant woman with the group.

Espécimens II is part of a trilogy that addresses the relationship between the urban organism and its inhabitants. Initially, the piece focused on recording architectural features - of the historical centers of João Pessoa, Recife and São Paulo - that would point to the use of abandoned buildings. At a second moment, the research was extended into various spaces within those cities, so as to observe and describe experiences relating to workplaces and urban settlements.

Although the piece is closely connected to real situations, some of these situations were created in the studio to produce the intended content. I believe in the freedom of giving the images the destination intended by the artist, and I believe in the power of breaking down a piece of work, exposing the entrails of what is being created, exposing contents that are not always seen by the naked eye. This is how the lights separated from the automobiles during the editing process portray the discomfort of the night.

Espécimens II relates to a poetics of valuing image manipulation. What would in principle be the starting point for production ends up influenced by the image editing and treatment process.

During this process, important interventions were made using specific software to invent various contents. These tools possess the ability to submit the images to the purposes of the creator, and to be used as investigation tools. Under the guidance of a view that opposes the rhetoric of special effects and the rationale, deviances in reading are welcomed as shortcuts that lead to other semantic destinations. The two extremes converse without the first one overwhelming the second one.

Within this environment of resignifications, there emerge fictional behaviors attributed to things that have no feelings, like the indifference of car lights that describe the discomfort of the night."

Chico Dantas in a statement to PLATFORM:VB (October 2013)