Um e duplo

Pedro Gil Mendonça - Artist's Statement: Inspired by the final passage of Goethe's poem Ginkgo Biloba, One and Double explores the duality of things. From the Ginkgo Biloba stretching to my window begins a diary of imprecise dates, but of certain affections; a poetic construction of relationships and elements that, from the natural and the human, constructed and re-signified, present forces that are sometimes complementary, sometimes opposite, averse and unified. Here, experiences are laden with a unique double meaning. Like a guiding thread, this notion expands throughout the project like branches that ramify high and distinct, but still connect to the center, part of the whole. The portraits do not face the camera, but invite the gaze to wander to what lies beyond. A subtle union between landscape and ourselves, between sky and sea, between being here and being there. A displacement not only geographical, but also a continuous search around one's own identity that constitutes the core of the project. A house only becomes a home when there is belonging. *** When I moved into my current apartment, it was empty; a TV stand, a built-in wardrobe, utensils that could have been either forgotten or abandoned, but nothing that made this new place a home. Outside, the tree that peered out my window was equally empty, leafless. It was February when I moved in. I noticed how its branches approached the apartment, but only with the weight of the leaves could it be within my reach, stretching an arm's length away. As new leaves appeared, its shape changed with each new dawn. The exterior seemed to flood the interior, carrying sometimes its colors, a rich green that painted the walls, sometimes its shadows, which danced every morning, a silhouette enveloped in a golden aura that had its peak, its rhythm, and its end. During the lockdown, my days were spent by the window, following the sweet sway of its rhythmic and sonorous branches; When the wind blew, all its force revealed itself like a raging sea. When the breeze was calm, it was like gentle waves reaching feet planted in the sand. With eyes closed, the sound of the sea and the leaves seemed the same. With eyes open, it's all one. The green gradually transforms into yellow, a lit lamp that slowly warms until it illuminates all white in a welcoming yellow. As its leaves fell, its form revealed itself again, its branches turned towards the sky; now those forms were no longer strange, now they were no longer empty.

Pedro Gil Mendonça (1990) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazilian photographer and artist born in Rio de Janeiro. Currently lives and works in Lisbon.

He holds a degree in Photography from Faculdade Cambury. He completed postgraduate studies in Discourses of Contemporary Photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon.

He has exhibitions in Brazil and Portugal. In his artistic practice, he explores the concepts of belonging and identity.