Visual Strolls

seasonal residency

Visual Strolls is a residency space for artists who share an affinity for landscapes and wilderness, inner and outer. Foresta is changing with every season as the real forest does. In cyclical circularity it celebrates changing seasons of nature and of our lives. As snow melts away, as days grow longer, as leaves change colour, as they fly with the wind, as stillness settles in, as warmth returns, as birds cross continents — at the turn of each seasonal moment we invite a different artist to bring a new time of the year to Foresta by creating a portrait of time that later becomes part of the permanent Museum of Seasons.

Autumn 2019 Artist in Residence

_foto_carolina_celas.jpg

Carolina Celas

Carolina is an author, illustrator, wooden sculpture- and book- maker based in Lisbon, experimenting with visual language, and making books as art objects, mixing fiction and reality. Subjects she touches through her work are often connected to home, belonging, relationship to space and changing perspectives.

Autumn 2019 Portrait

carolina celas la foresta
PORQUÊ A FLORESTA?

1. Porque me intriga: Curiosidade

2. Porque nos sentimos tão pequenos que parece podemos ser engolidos: O desconhecido

3. Para recuperar memórias da minha infância: Introspecção

4. Para escapar do mundo real: uma metáfora à idealização de um lugar de forma a negar uma realidade ou mesmo uma idealização dos próprios sonhos.

5. Por prazer: é impossível resistir

Se precisar de descrever o termo floresta, diria que é um pouco semelhante à sensação de estar em casa. No meu trabalho, tento perceber o sentido dos lugares através de elementos gráficos e espaciais, bem como através das emoções e do sentimento de deslocamento como metáfora à vida cotidiana. A floresta é uma casa que podemos ver de fora. É fascinante, mas misteriosa ao mesmo tempo. Se olharmos atentamente, há uma porta. Uma porta é normalmente descrita como um lugar pelo qual se pode passar para o interior e, em seguida, se pode ficar o tempo que quiser. Consequentemente, a floresta tem uma porta e também tem um interior. Se estivermos do lado de fora, tem uma vista incrível, mas se entrarmos, ainda podemos contemplar a sua beleza, mas com um distorcer emocional e de imaginação. Podemos ouvir: o silêncio, a respiração, a intimidade... A floresta transforma-se alguma vezes numa saída de escape ao mundo real, mas tiro vantagem dela ao criar ficção e realidades surreais. Quando desenho, sinto-me ligada ao gesto e ao ato de desenhar. Torna-se numa espécie de extensão dos sentimentos em forma de papel. Apesar de todos o sentirmos de forma distinsta, nas minhas paisagens, a Floresta torna-se numa testemunha do que vejo e do que sinto.

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WHY FOREST?

1. Because intrigues me: Curiosity

2. Because we feel so small and seems that we will be swallowed by it: The unknown

3. To recuperate memories from my childhood: inner connection

4. To escape the real world: a metaphor of an idealization of a place to deny a reality or even an idealization of our own dreams

5. For pleasure: It is impossible to resist

If I need to describe forest I’ll say that is slightly similar to the feeling of being home. As part of my work, I try to perceive the sense of place through graphic and spatial elements, as well as, conveying emotions and feelings of displacement as a metaphor for everyday life. The forest is a house that can be seen from outside. It is charming and intriguing at the same time. If you look closely, there is a door. A door is usually described as a place where you can pass to the interior, and then, you can stay, as long as you wish. Therefore the forest has a door and it has an interior too. If you are outside you have the amazing view, and if you go inside, you can still perceive its beauty, with an emotional twist and imagination. You can hear and feel it: the silence, the breathing, the intimacy... The Forest is an escape exit for the real world but at the same time I take advantage of it to create fiction and surreal realities. When I draw I feel connected with the gesture and the act of drawing. It becomes a kind of paper-shaped extension of feelings. Although we all feel it in distinct ways, in my landscapes, the forest becomes a witness to what I see and feel.
 
 

About Visual Strolls

Visual Strolls is not only an online gallery, an exhibition room, a portrait into the work of the invited artist. It is also a part of our long-term research, understanding arts and creativity as forces that change human states of attention in manifold ways, as forms of cognition and perception, divergent perspectives and poetry of vision, access to intuition and imagination, and empowerment for conscious creation of culture. You can read more about Art into Life research here.

Cover image by Carolina Celas