Publications > Vasco Araújo

Portugal, 2007

[ Texte en français non dispobible ]

This third publication of the association ADIAC (Associação para a Difusão Internacional de Arte Contemporanea) is dedicated to Vasco Araújo. ADIAC's goal is to produce comprehensive literature on young artists which can be distributed in Portugal and abroad, in order to create awareness of the high standard of Portuguese contemporary art. These books are sent to the main international museums, art critics and galleries to which we think they may be of interest. We are thus happy to note that the book about the artist Miguel Palma granted him access to the Almine Rech gallery in Paris and entrance into the collection of Luxemburg's Museum of Modern Art (Mudam), and also gave him the opportunity to develop his work in New York during a residency at Location One in February 2007.

We have been following Vasco Araujo's career from “La Stupenda”, a video presented at the Filomena Soares gallery (Lisbon, 2001), up to “Made in France” at the Gabrielle Maubrie gallery (Paris, 2005) including his most recent works such as “The Experience of Art” in the Italian pavilion at Venice Biennale (2005) and “O que eu fui” at the Filomena Soares gallery in March and April of the same year.

Vasco received training as a lyric singer, a feature which has been reflected in his material which uses voice over video or photography to explore seduction gestures, cultural stereotypes, political simulacra as well as a reflection on the sexual identity. The artist also uses the game of masquerades as a grand theatrical deception. This approach is especially obvious in the series “O que eu fui”, in which the moments immediately before death are played out in this manner. The pictures of the sculptures talk, throwing the viewer who as a result can no longer discern where reality ends and fiction begins. Vasco Araújo's work follows the tradition of Baroque art showing us a world of thoughts full of literary references and art history references, leading us to the criticism of our society that fluctuates between truth and artifice.

ADIAC is honored to participate in the international promotion of this artist, an action greatly anticipated by many critics in the international arena. For those who are witnessing Vasco Araujo's work for the first time, ADIAC is pleased to create this opportunity. We wish you pleasant reading and an enjoyable discovery!

António da Veiga Pinto / Marc Pottier
ADIAC - Portugal