Mechanics of Water and Time | Photography Exhibition

Synopsis

This work is not intended to be a documentary report of the factory, but rather a deconstructivist visual proposal of it. It approaches it from a less obvious and more creative perspective, less immediate and more entropic. It shows what would be impossible to see with the naked eye. Everything that was once designed to work, today openly plays its role, albeit inesthetically and discreetly in a (perhaps) inaccessible place. Nothing can be neglected in an engineering system as complex as an Industrial Complex. There is no shame in showing a negligible detail, or a mechanism out of its time. Everything is part of this mechanics and everything is part of this work.

Front wall of the exhibition lobby, with several framed photos

Vertical poster announcing the exhibition

The photographer author of the exhibition, with a motion blur effect

Side view of one of the walls, with the framed photos on display

Close-up detail of 3 photographs on display

Support and welcome table, with guestbook and pens

Photographer Pedro Queiroga next to one of the photos

Description

The idea of photographing the industrial unit of Água de Monchique arose when I started looking for a diversified theme in terms of visual complexity and also with some kind of movement.

The title "Mechanics of Water and Time" refers on the one hand to the production mechanism itself, in its most industrial and systematic character, and on the other hand to the complexity to which Time can subject us. Without a controlled use of that time, it would have been impossible to obtain some of the exhibited photographic effects. It is the factor that frames the mechanics of water and relativizes all inherent processes.

Photographing is the art of knowing how to see in order to show. A photograph has no expression or meaning if it is not seen and inherently interpreted. The photographer does not only have the function of observing and capturing. He is impelled to show his creation, as if it were a cause-and-effect relationship. In this process, he infects the image with his own subjectivity. It is something inseparable in the art of photography.

This work was exhibited at the exhibition gallery of the Biblioteca Municipal José Mariano Gago in Olhão, between April 6 and 30, 2019, and later in the exhibition room of CCDR Faro, from Aug 19 to Sep 30, 2019. The exhibition featured 23 photographs measuring 75×50 (cm), printed on Dibond aluminum.

This exhibition was also present at the launch event for the new glass range, at the Fundação Oriente, on Feb 26, 2020.

Descriptive Label: Collection kindly provided by Água de Monchique

Wall of the CCDR Algarve exhibition room in Faro

Photographer in the CCDR exhibition room

Detail of 3 exposed images and the photographic exhibition poster