Projecto Ilhas

Filomena Almeida's installation "Islands" is a good metaphor for the island from the perspective of an involuntary islander, who sees it as a prison and not as a paradise—it is the stone and the aridity that are present, not the lush vegetation.

The involuntary islander intends to escape the prison into which the island transforms, but escaping the stone can mean a leap into the void, or into an unstable liquid matter that geographically isolates him. But the immensity of the horizon line remains seductive, and the mirror reflects this ambition, accentuating a panoramic view that is always reflected at or above the human eye. It never reflects below, never reflects the stone. And by not reflecting it, it accentuates the desire for escape. Its circular form also fuels this desire, evoking the windows of the ships that carried people.

Filomena Almeida's installation "Islands" is a good metaphor for the island from the perspective of an involuntary islander, who sees it as a prison and not as a paradise—it is the stone and the aridity that are present, not the lush vegetation.

The involuntary islander intends to escape the prison into which the island transforms, but fleeing the stone can mean a leap into the void, or into an unstable liquid matter that geographically isolates him. But the immensity of the horizon line remains seductive, and the mirror reflects this ambition, accentuating a panoramic view that is always reflected at the height of man or above him. It never reflects below, never reflects the stone. And by not reflecting it, it accentuates the desire for escape. Its circular form also fuels this desire, evoking the windows of the ships that carried people.