Natureza Viva

NATUREZA VIVA – LUCIA ADVERSE

The first revelation I had about the unique work of Lucia Adverse was her series of photographs, “Entre Luz e Fusco” (Between Light and Shadow): The photos – taken on the Acropolis of Athens during the restoration of the Parthenon – showed me how photography could change our perception of the world. While scaffolding appalled visitors coming to admire the ancient monument, the artist was able to take harmonious compositions projected on the marble by the shadows from the metal beams. Thereafter, I chose the same series for a course I presented at The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. The series was about “The Relationship between the Artist and the Real World of Contemporary Art”.

From the nineteenth century to the present day, the birth of Impressionism owes much to the invention of the daguerreotype. In 1874, at the photographer Nadar’s atelier, Claude Monet and his friends organized their first exhibition. Far from considering photography as a threat to the future of painting, they discovered the foundations of a new artistic direction. From an Impressionist perspective – there is no objective representation of reality because all reality depends on the interpretation by the artist and the observer extends that interpretation.

When photography is limited to objects placed in front of the camera to be reported, it is a technique. When the darkroom changes to alchemical crucible where images of reality merge into the inner world of the photographer, it becomes an art. This is exactly the dimension where Lucia Adverse projects the most humble objects of her environment. Her eyes know how to capture a shadow, a monochrome strip or a metal rod, to write a poem, to compose a musical suite, to draw a landscape … If I allow myself to define the relation the artist establishes with her camera, I would say she transforms her camera objective into the subjective.

Marc Soléranski (Art historian, author)