Bienal de Pontevedra

The work of Manuel Casimiro (1941, Porto, Portugal) covers different disciplines such as painting, sculpture, photography, design and cinema. Since 1968, his work has been characterised by an exploration of what might be called an ‘ironic mystery’, based on a post-structuralist approach. This mystery is focused on a recurring symbol in his work: the ovoid. A stain generating a void in the image, a space in which the look can escape, disappear or be abstracted. According to Casimiro, this void is like an ‘actor’ who can play whatever role the viewer chooses. He describes it as an ‘opening into the unknown’, an invitation to go deeper and a tool for reflection, to empty the mind and meditate. His proposal seeks to provoke the viewer, to challenge them to think, to reconsider what they see and what they think. In his work, space and time merge to connect the past, the present and the future, in a constant transformation that, according to Casimiro, becomes movement when spectators interpret the image, when the painting is reactivated in the mind.