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"'Reality as mud as dense as air' reads the spine of Sofia BORGES’ photo book 'The Swamp', and equally, the series of photographs that she presents is as leaden as it is impenetrable.
Spanning a seven-year period, it largely records BORGES’ countless visits to natural history museums, zoos, aquariums and research centres, where the artifice of reality became her point of focus.
For BORGES, displays such as habitat dioramas serve as the ultimate form of representation, where objects have the virtuous task of representing 'themselves' – a type, genre or group that is inherently bound to language through layers of history and meaning. As a motionless walrus lies in its plastic Antarctic locale and the beady eye of a fossilised bird catches your glance, what glares back at you from the depths of 'The Swamp' is not the thing itself, but the image, of an image, of an image.
'What I seek are images, which, in their very artifice, are able to present themselves as a problem' (© Sofia BORGES).
Beyond the comical absurdity of museological spectacles that spawn the living dead, The Swamp takes aim at the notion that images can be “read”. Taking inspiration from the insoluble language of Beckett on the one hand, and the cinematic mind-twists of Lynch on the other, Borges disrupts logical processes of comprehension, offering seemingly random sequences of images, whose monstrous forms and coarse surfaces purposefully assault the senses." (publisher's note, © Mack Books, 2016)
About the photographer, Sofia BORGES (b. 1984, Ribeirão Preto / Brazil):
Currently living between Paris and São Paulo, Sofia BORGES is a visual artist who received her BA in Visual Arts from the Universidade de São Paulo in 2008.
In that same year she received four art awards and a subvention for artistic research and production granted by the State of Pernambuco, Brazil.
From 2009 to 2011 Borges presented seven solo shows in Brazil, was selected by Rumos Itaú Cultural, was highlighted by the Bolsa Iberê Camargo, won the Premio Porto Seguro de Fotografia, was one of the Brazilian artists nominated to the Paul Huf Award 2010 (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and her work was invited to join the Clube da Fotografia 2011 of MAM (Modern Art Museum of São Paulo). In 2012 Sofia was invited to the 30th São Paulo Biennial. In 2013, she was nominated to the BES Photo Award (Portugal), once again to the Paul Huf Award, and was granted with the acquisition prize of the Programa de Fotografia do Centro Cultural São Paulo. Also presented solo shows in Mexico City (Mexico), Madrid (Spain), Paris (France), Lisbon (Portugal) and São Paulo and featured works in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Denver (EUA), Oslo (Norway). In 2014 the artist was again nominated for the Paul Huf Award, and presented works in London (UK), Los Angeles (USA), Lyon (France), São Paulo (Brazil), Doha (Qatar), and Beijing (China). In 2015, besides solo show in Paris and group shows in Brazil, France and Canada, the artist developed a first collaborative/ experimental project as curator. During this time she was also engaged in investigative expeditions in prehistorical caves of South of France, one of this expeditions being connected to the opening of the real size replica of Chauvet Cave, on which she had the opportunity to research and photograph during the final moments of construction.
In 2016 Borges was the Brazilian nominee for the First Book Award given by MACK Publisher, London (UK). Her autoral project is shortlisted and the final winner will be announced during PhotoLondon.
SELECTED LINKS for ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
.
Le Non-Vu, Jean Luis Poitevin, tk-21 magazine. Paris, France, 2014 (http://www.tk-21.com/Le-non-vu) - 'Indecipherable, are the names' – Interview with Rodrigo Moura republished at tk-21 magazine. Paris, France, 2013 (http://www.tk-21.com/TK-21-LaRevue-no-28) - Sofia Borges' questioning images, Studio Visit at São Paulo, Brazil, 2013 (http://blog.goethe.de/studiovisits/archives/53-Sofia-Borges-questioning-images.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ce5giSRQf8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4swh6HThBsM) - Top 10 from the Sao Paolo Bienal, ART IN AMERICA magazine, art review. USA, 2012 (http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/finer-things/2012-09-25/sao-paolo-biennial-top-10/) - THE FRANKS-SUSS COLLECTION, art review, Bienal de São Paulo, London, UK, 2012 (http://franks-suss.com/bienal-de-sao-paulo-2012/) - Sofia Borges by Carolina Soares, interview. 3C Centro de Criação Contemporânea, Art Magazine, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012 (http://3c.art.br/3x31/) - O MAC Encontra os Artistas (MAC Meets the Artists). Sofia Borges' speech in the program of the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, Brazil, 2010 (http://www.mac.usp.br/mac/conteudo/cursoseventos/mac_encontra/2010/borges_vd.asp)
"'Reality as mud as dense as air' reads the spine of Sofia BORGES’ photo book 'The Swamp', and equally, the series of photographs that she presents is as leaden as it is impenetrable.
Spanning a seven-year period, it largely records BORGES’ countless visits to natural history museums, zoos, aquariums and research centres, where the artifice of reality became her point of focus.
For BORGES, displays such as habitat dioramas serve as the ultimate form of representation, where objects have the virtuous task of representing 'themselves' – a type, genre or group that is inherently bound to language through layers of history and meaning. As a motionless walrus lies in its plastic Antarctic locale and the beady eye of a fossilised bird catches your glance, what glares back at you from the depths of 'The Swamp' is not the thing itself, but the image, of an image, of an image.
'What I seek are images, which, in their very artifice, are able to present themselves as a problem' (© Sofia BORGES).
Beyond the comical absurdity of museological spectacles that spawn the living dead, The Swamp takes aim at the notion that images can be “read”. Taking inspiration from the insoluble language of Beckett on the one hand, and the cinematic mind-twists of Lynch on the other, Borges disrupts logical processes of comprehension, offering seemingly random sequences of images, whose monstrous forms and coarse surfaces purposefully assault the senses." (publisher's note, © Mack Books, 2016)
About the photographer, Sofia BORGES (b. 1984, Ribeirão Preto / Brazil):
Currently living between Paris and São Paulo, Sofia BORGES is a visual artist who received her BA in Visual Arts from the Universidade de São Paulo in 2008.
In that same year she received four art awards and a subvention for artistic research and production granted by the State of Pernambuco, Brazil.
From 2009 to 2011 Borges presented seven solo shows in Brazil, was selected by Rumos Itaú Cultural, was highlighted by the Bolsa Iberê Camargo, won the Premio Porto Seguro de Fotografia, was one of the Brazilian artists nominated to the Paul Huf Award 2010 (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and her work was invited to join the Clube da Fotografia 2011 of MAM (Modern Art Museum of São Paulo). In 2012 Sofia was invited to the 30th São Paulo Biennial. In 2013, she was nominated to the BES Photo Award (Portugal), once again to the Paul Huf Award, and was granted with the acquisition prize of the Programa de Fotografia do Centro Cultural São Paulo. Also presented solo shows in Mexico City (Mexico), Madrid (Spain), Paris (France), Lisbon (Portugal) and São Paulo and featured works in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Denver (EUA), Oslo (Norway). In 2014 the artist was again nominated for the Paul Huf Award, and presented works in London (UK), Los Angeles (USA), Lyon (France), São Paulo (Brazil), Doha (Qatar), and Beijing (China). In 2015, besides solo show in Paris and group shows in Brazil, France and Canada, the artist developed a first collaborative/ experimental project as curator. During this time she was also engaged in investigative expeditions in prehistorical caves of South of France, one of this expeditions being connected to the opening of the real size replica of Chauvet Cave, on which she had the opportunity to research and photograph during the final moments of construction.
In 2016 Borges was the Brazilian nominee for the First Book Award given by MACK Publisher, London (UK). Her autoral project is shortlisted and the final winner will be announced during PhotoLondon.
SELECTED LINKS for ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
.
Le Non-Vu, Jean Luis Poitevin, tk-21 magazine. Paris, France, 2014 (http://www.tk-21.com/Le-non-vu) - 'Indecipherable, are the names' – Interview with Rodrigo Moura republished at tk-21 magazine. Paris, France, 2013 (http://www.tk-21.com/TK-21-LaRevue-no-28) - Sofia Borges' questioning images, Studio Visit at São Paulo, Brazil, 2013 (http://blog.goethe.de/studiovisits/archives/53-Sofia-Borges-questioning-images.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ce5giSRQf8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4swh6HThBsM) - Top 10 from the Sao Paolo Bienal, ART IN AMERICA magazine, art review. USA, 2012 (http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/finer-things/2012-09-25/sao-paolo-biennial-top-10/) - THE FRANKS-SUSS COLLECTION, art review, Bienal de São Paulo, London, UK, 2012 (http://franks-suss.com/bienal-de-sao-paulo-2012/) - Sofia Borges by Carolina Soares, interview. 3C Centro de Criação Contemporânea, Art Magazine, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012 (http://3c.art.br/3x31/) - O MAC Encontra os Artistas (MAC Meets the Artists). Sofia Borges' speech in the program of the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, Brazil, 2010 (http://www.mac.usp.br/mac/conteudo/cursoseventos/mac_encontra/2010/borges_vd.asp)
- Format
- Open spined pb. (wrap around dust jacket), 21 x 26 cm., 184 pp., 49 color & 22 b/w ills., text language: English