Exhibition
JOSÉ MIGUEL GERVÁSIO
[PORTUGAL]
HETEROCLITOLOGIA
opening · 29 may · 9 pm
on display until 7 june
Cineteatro Curvo Semedo – Foyer
Guided Tour + Talk on 6 June at 4 pm
The three-dimensional nature of these objects—undefined shelters, structures without a stated function, forms that refuse to be integrated into the absolute functionality of the regime of life—does not grant them a clearly defined disciplinary identity. The heteroclite can be read as architectural models without a programme, as sculptures devoid of monumentality, or as characters without psychology. This indeterminacy does not constitute a formal deficit, but rather their fundamental operative condition: these are forms that exist outside function and outside representation, fully inscribed within the field of art as an ontological essay. What is affirmed in them is not the thing as a functional object or recognisable sign, but the restless presence of something that resists naming. Ultimately, these forms represent nothing other than their own difference in action, asserting themselves as a singular existence without a prior model, in a sense close to that which Difference and Repetition describes as production without a representational foundation.
As a visual artist, José Miguel Gervásio has exhibited regularly since 1994, having been represented by two of Portugal’s most prestigious art galleries: Galeria Quadrado Azul in Porto and Módulo – Centro Difusor de Arte in Lisbon, between 2009 and 2018. In this
context, he has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, as well as
art fairs in Portugal and Spain. His paintings and drawings are held in public and private collections, notably the Carmona e Costa Foundation in Lisbon, the art collection of Prof. Jorge Gaspar in Alvito, and the “Gabinete Gráfico” of the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome.