Falar de Longe: José Bechara

Time, geometry and error meet in the work of José Bechara, who is presenting his new solo exhibition “Falar de Longe” (Talking from Afar) on the entire first floor of Albuquerque Contemporânea. With a critical text by Luiz Armando Bagolin, the exhibition brings together works created over the last 6 years and will open on Tuesday, November 12, and will be on display until January 18.

The title “Falar de Longe” (Talking from Afar) alludes to the condition that the work has to spread beyond the space of creation. It suggests the idea that the work carries a set of reflections that emerged during the creative process, whether formal or symbolic, and that can trigger other poetic connections for observers beyond the space of the studio.

The truck tarp is a key element in José Bechara’s trajectory, which has been present in his work since the 1990s. Before reaching the artist’s hands, it is imbued with his own history. Sun, rain, soil and pollution stains establish a base on which Bechara works new forms and lines through acrylic paint and the oxidation of copper and iron.

In Bagolin’s words: “Space as we conceive it is nothing but one of the effects of time, the record or mark that it operates in a given instant, transformed into a place. For this reason, his paintings do not remain fixed as finished things, once they are completed. They serve rather as passwords so that we can visualize the action of time on them and on us, as well as the record of this action in a given space, provisionally filled (experienced in an instant).”