From gazing so long at the sun,

I have burnt my eyes,

From loving life so much, I have gone mad.

Now I am this darkness in the world.

In search

Of the light and the sanity I have lost.

Miguel Torga

As Miguel Torga would remind us through his earthy obsession, it is to the earth that we owe our meaning and life, our hope for the future. For this reason, we owe it our loyalty.

“Coal” brings together a collection of works that present themselves as a field of inquiry, centred on a piece of coal gathered from an extinguished bonfire, found in a forest - [40.1526908, - 8.436140] – in the district of Coimbra, in January 2021, during a walk, a practice I frequently resort to as a way of observing the world around me and as a method of artistic creation.

From this same piece of burnt wood emerged various processes of artistic discovery and graphic expression, taking the form of drawings, photographs, collages or frottage, exploring the diverse materialities and meanings that charcoal, as an artistic medium, can take on.

“Charcoal” is also a perception of care for the earth, the mother of life, and for our place in the world, reminding us that this piece of charcoal

is also the memory of a tree, of a forest and of an element: fire, in all its splendour and potential to encrypt messages, but also as a symbol of destruction, erasure and the end.

Almost at the far end of the room, a sculpture traces a black circle on the floor, contrasting with the light emanating from the drawings and photographs around it, which is reflected here in the white bones rising at the top of their plumb lines.

“White”, composed of charcoal, iron and bone—elements we can understand as coming from or belonging to the earth—is the work that concludes the anamnesis of our condition and fragility, of the invisible that hides within us, of the inevitable journey towards the end.

IM, January 2025

CREDITS

© INÊS MOURA | CARVÃO 2021-2024

www.inesmoura.pt

General Production | Mira Galerias | Mira Forum

Photographic Prints | T.art

Installation: T.art (Felipe Barbosa, Pedro Beja Alves)

Photographic Documentation | Nuno Sampaio

SUPPORT: GENERAL DIRECTORATE FOR THE ARTS

The exhibition “Carvão” is part of the project

(In)Visibilities and Drifts by MIRA Galerias | MIRA FORUM

Acknowledgements:

Manuela Matos Monteiro and João Lafuente; Jorge Simões, Nuno Maia, Nuno Sampaio, Paulo Cunha, Pedro Beja Alves