PONTO ZERO
PONTO ZERO of Rodrigo Braga is closely linked to experiences lived lin Barroca do Zêzere and in contact with minerals, fauna, flora and people of the location. The place where he completed an artist-in-residence program was identified following two exploratory visits to the region, which coincided with two public interventions by Braga in the city of Covilhã, Portugal, in November 2018 in the context
of the event “Magical Mountain” (http://montanhamagica.ubi.pt), organized by the Department of Media Arts, University of Beira Interior, and the New Hand Lab Cultural Association. In addition, the exhibition “Agriculture of Image / Image of Agriculture,” at Wool Museum, Covilhã and the Archeological Museum, Fundão, allowed him to present his work on the Brazilian Amazon rainforest to the
general public.
What does an artist see, feel, perceive, and create when he spends a season between the Schist Villages, in the interior of Portugal, on the banks of the Zêzere River, on tracks in mining areas, and through pine forests and their constant fires? This was Brazilian artist Rodrigo
Braga’s proposal for the Entre Serras Project, which he used to express himself through mimesis with nature in its different exuberant fields, whether in the immensity of the Amazon, in the drought in northeastern Brazil, or in so many other landscapes of different continents. During
the summer of 2019, the artist made an artistic residency in the region (Fundão Council ), where he could dialogue
with the stories of that place and seek his form of recognition with the ambience.
Braga presents his discoveries and his process as he leaves his cave. As can be observed in his production in recent years, the artist uses distinct and contrasting elements and materials, which confront each other but also show us the interdependence of their mutual
existence of the other. Darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge. Coming out of shadow and common sense, the artist travels through the depths of a scorched and exploited earth, and finds the most basic and primary formation of a place: the stone. The death of nature is lived and the artist understands himself as part of the whole, he undresses and cuts off his hair, being able to mimic with that place where he is, but which is also where we came from and where we are going to. As if understanding the need to die in order to be reborn, Braga goes deeper and reaches the centre of the earth and presents us with an attempt to reset everything and start again from scratch. The man, the
medium and its interactions. The filling of this space is only possible after it has been completely emptied. Thus, the artist presents a rebirth of the globe from its core, with stones that are shocked by a man also in their most primitive form. Zero Point offers us a path of stones already cut by the hands of Rodrigo Braga, to be discovered if we want to venture out of our own caves.
Marcella Marer
