Exhibition

This body of work results from an interpretation, using Photography, of the creative process involved in staging Shakespeare’s play “Richard III” by Grupo de Teatro de Letras, directed by Avila Costa. Like Power itself, Richard also attracts the audience to the machiavellian swirl of conspiracy through his monologues.  In those moments Richard shares the stage with his thoughts and the latter with our curiosity for a certain evilness for conquest. Richard mirrors us. Once set, we start finding Richard in all the other characters and a sense of claustrophobia emerges from this play.

Building such plot is made with masks after deconstructing the perception of an individual of that staging. Words group together into sentences, that break into lines which will need the actor to be in the zone. The actor is an interpreter and carries the immense responsibility of showing it to us, without the safety net of writing, canvas or photographic paper, developed and fixed. Through photography and exposing the result in an almost chronological fashion, a history is built remaining necessarily incomplete. Stage tension is transmuted in the suspension of the bodies in the paper and the masks are crystallized in the only context delivered by the photographic subject. In the end, the work exhibited tries to be as timeless as the play itself, not because there is an implication but because of the play subject on its own.

Nuno Vieira Matos
nunovieiramatos@gmail.com
http://nunovieiramatos.blogspot.com
http://www.nucleoartefotografica.com

Thanks to: Avila Costa for the opportunity and availability, to the actors in GTL for the cooperation (Andre Canario, Andre Pardal, Bruno Matay, Carolina Rocha, Catarina Salgueiro, Claudia Pinto, Isabel Martins, Ivo Santos, Joana Araujo, Joana Lima, Joana Campelo, Jorge Albuquerque, Jorge Completo, Mariana Vieira, Marisa Russo, Miriam Vieira, Monica Carrusca, Raquel Cipriano), Joao Figueiredo Dias for the support and logistics, Flavio Nunes for the videos, Nucleo Arte Fotografica for the opportunities it allow, Mafra Municipality for the space, Pedro Ramos for the availability and strong commitment, and Cristina for being there always.