MEMORY AS MY HOME, FLOATING BETWEEN PRESENT AND PAST ⚡︎
Wel Soares - Dez 2024
Memory is a fragile construct, constantly shaped by time, experiences, affections, and power dynamics. My work stems from the need to reconstruct and transmute memory, currently linked to a demolished space: the house where I grew up.
“The house where I lived as a child comes to mind with a very clear image, and here I do not limit myself to merely recalling its external form. I tear through the raw brick walls with my eyes, textured by an industrial mold, sometimes bearing the mark of the company that produced them. The asbestos tiles make my eyes tremble. The waxed floor, a moss-green shade, almost edible. The separation between rooms holds a unique beauty; each of the three spaces reveals distinct worlds with their own characteristics. I allow myself to imagine the surroundings of the shack. In the rain, the cement ground in front of the house would grow moss and stretch for a few meters, a mix of gray and green. I would lie there for hours. On the left side of the house, there was a slope that connected to the neighboring house. This space received a direct sunlight and, being between the two houses, conveyed a sense of privacy. When I played or drew, I stayed there.”
The physical absence of this place has not erased its presence in time. On the contrary, it has displaced its existence into new forms, into structures that engage with emptiness, permanence, and the transformation of what was once space. Memory does not vanish along with what once housed it—it reinscribes itself in what resists. Destruction does not signify an absolute end.
In this process, the sculpture plays a role in the transmutation of memory. Each action upon the material reinscribes what is no longer there. It is important to me to carry out each stage of the sculpture, shaping the material and allowing my own making to become part of this displacement.Some forms are reservoirs of memory, not as fixed archives but as spaces of retention and passage. The "tacho" becomes a body that shelters what has been transformed. The "cabaça"" re-emerges as an ancestral element, transparent, holding and suggesting the presence of something that wants to be seen but not accessed.
The sculptures stretch time and matter, creating a place where absence also takes up space. Between presence and disappearance, memory finds new ways to exist. What was once a physical space now shifts into other structures, where past and present are accessed and connected.
