Water runs through all of it—the connective tissue holding six separate investigations into one coherent inquiry.
Na ilha de São Miguel, seis artistas percorreram lagoas, grutas e redes de água para criar obras que serão inauguradas amanhã no Arquipélago, em Ribeira Grande. O projeto Desaguar reúne três instituições da Rede Portuguesa de Arte Contemporânea em torno de uma pergunta simples e profunda: para onde nos leva aquilo que já conhecemos? A água, nesta exposição, não é tema decorativo — é a força que moldou a terra, sustenta a vida e une memórias coletivas a especulações sobre o futuro.
- Seis artistas de regiões distintas de Portugal convergiram numa mesma ilha com uma missão partilhada: compreender como a água transforma a paisagem e a memória humana.
- A dispersão geográfica e a diversidade de linguagens — vídeo, gravura, escultura, instalação, desenho, pintura — criavam o risco de uma exposição fragmentada sem coesão.
- O curador Jesse James trabalhou em diálogo constante com os artistas para encontrar os fios invisíveis que ligam cartografias, escassez hídrica, infraestruturas e ficção especulativa.
- A exposição 'Vamos aonde já estivemos?' abre amanhã no Arquipélago como resposta coletiva: não uma declaração única, mas seis investigações que a água transforma numa só pergunta.
Amanhã às quatro da tarde, o Arquipélago — centro de arte contemporânea em Ribeira Grande — inaugura 'Vamos aonde já estivemos?', exposição que encerra o projeto Desaguar. A iniciativa une três instituições da Rede Portuguesa de Arte Contemporânea: o próprio Arquipélago, a Fundação Bienal de Cerveira e a Galeria de Arte do Convento do Espírito Santo em Loulé. Cada uma selecionou dois artistas, que passaram tempo em São Miguel percorrendo o território com um fio condutor comum: a água.
O curador Jesse James descreve a água não como simples tema, mas como elemento vital, metáfora e força transformadora. Os artistas visitaram o Salto do Cabrito, as Furnas, as Sete Cidades, ribeiras e fontes espalhadas pela ilha, prestando atenção às redes invisíveis de distribuição de água que sustentam a vida humana. Sempre que possível, caminharam juntos, tentando apreender como a água moldou a morfologia e os ritmos da ilha.
O resultado é uma reunião de vozes distintas: Bertílio Martins trabalha com mapas e cartografia; Margarida Andrade explora a escassez hídrica em vídeo; Milita reflete sobre infraestrutura e memória coletiva; João Amado aventura-se pela ficção especulativa; Ana Maria Pintora evoca tradição e fluxos simbólicos; Patrícia Oliveira encerra com uma reflexão ética em instalação. O papel de Jesse James foi criar um percurso entre estas propostas — não para as uniformizar, mas para revelar as ligações que a água, silenciosamente, já tinha traçado entre todas elas.
Tomorrow at four in the afternoon, the doors open at Arquipélago, a contemporary arts center in Ribeira Grande, for an exhibition called "Vamos aonde já estivemos?"—Where Have We Already Been? It is the culmination of a project called Desaguar, a collaboration between three institutions: Arquipélago itself, the Cerveira Biennial Foundation, and the Art Gallery of the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Loulé. Together, they form part of the Portuguese Network of Contemporary Art, and what they have assembled is the work of six artists who spent time on the island of São Miguel, moving through its landscape with a single thread connecting them: water.
Water, as the curator Jesse James explains it, is not merely the subject here. It is vital element, metaphor, and transformative force all at once. The three institutions each selected two artists from their regions. Arquipélago chose Margarida Andrade and João Amado. Loulé selected Bertílio Martins. The Cerveira Biennial brought in Ana Maria Pintora and Patrícia Oliveira. These six artists did not always move through the island together, but whenever possible they converged, walking the terrain to understand how water had shaped it—the geography, the morphology, the bodies of water themselves. The lagoons especially drew their attention, ecological zones of genuine significance. James notes that any artist working in the Azores must essentially map the place, moving from one point to another to grasp the rhythms and spaces that define an island.
The artists visited specific locations: Salto do Cabrito, the caves known as Furnas, the Sete Cidades, the streams and waterways. They sought out fountains and water infrastructure throughout the island, and this attention to the built systems of water distribution—the practical, almost invisible networks that sustain human life—appears in the work of at least one artist, a meditation on what these structures mean and how they function. What the public will encounter is not a unified statement but a gathering of distinct voices, each speaking in its own language. Margarida offers video work. Milita and Bertílio work in drawing. There is engraving, installation by Patrícia, sculpture, and painting. The range is genuinely broad.
James's role as curator has been to create a path through these proposals, to find connections between works that travel through different dimensions and materials. He describes it as a process of exchange with the artists themselves, a conversation about what they are thinking and how they are thinking it. Each artist has brought a different angle to the central theme. Bertílio engages with maps and cartography. Margarida explores the idea of water scarcity. Milita considers infrastructure and collective memory. João Amado ventures into speculative fiction. Ana Maria draws on tradition and symbolic flows. Patrícia offers a final ethical reflection. Water runs through all of it—not as decoration but as the connective tissue that holds the entire exhibition together, the thing that makes six separate investigations into one coherent inquiry.
Citações Notáveis
Water is a vital element, a metaphor, and a transformative force— Jesse James, curator
Artists in the Azores need to map the place, moving from one point to another to grasp the rhythms and spaces that define an island— Jesse James, curator
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does an exhibition about water need six different artists? Couldn't one person tell that story?
Water isn't a single story. It's a geological force, an infrastructure, a memory, a scarcity, a symbol. One artist sees cartography; another sees what's missing. The point is to let them all speak at once.
Did the artists work together, or separately?
Both. They walked the island together when they could, but they weren't making the same work. They were mapping the same place from six different angles.
What does it mean that they visited fountains and streams?
It means they weren't interested in water as abstraction. They wanted to see how people actually live with it—where it comes from, how it's distributed, what it means to a community.
The curator mentions water as a "transformative force." Transform what?
The island itself, for one. But also how we think about place, about what shapes a landscape. Water carved São Miguel. It's not passive scenery—it's an agent.
Why does this matter now?
Because we're learning to see infrastructure and ecology as inseparable from art and culture. These artists aren't illustrating a concept. They're investigating how water is woven into everything—geography, memory, survival.