Friendship dances around the world bidding us all to awaken to the recognition of happiness^[1].

I met Bárbara Faden and Rita Paisana at Galeria Salto on a Thursday morning to discuss Suspiro, the two artists’ most recent exhibition, curated by Ana Grebler. Before delving into these topics – and I would like to point out that they were particularly enjoyable to contemplate -, we must recognise that Suspiro is an exhibition-anniversary party for the 7 (almost 8) years of friendship between the artists.

Having met on the night they learnt they would be studying in the same class at the Faculty of Fine Arts, they have over the years developed the bond that now calls for celebration. Suspiro is their first exhibition together. The idea and willingness to stage it came about in the summer of last year and, since then, they have been building, on the principle of complementarity, a body of work arising from the realm they share. The exhibition is the outcome of their collaborative work and artistic research, which explores symbols, dilemmas and references, but is also an imagination both real and mystical, a testimony to the individual and mutual care between the artists. Each piece is a sort of talisman forged in this intimate universe, the consequence of fluctuating between states of “passion and discomfort, storm and calm”^[2].

As synonyms for affectionate relationships, love and friendship had their beginnings as soon as humans felt a need for affection or warmth^[3]. Friendship requires a notion and practice of reciprocity and care for others, but also a deep knowledge of oneself. The establishment of individual boundaries, reciprocal understanding and authenticity are essential in a positive and meaningful friendship, and these artists have been working in this context of goodwill, encouragement, acceptance and understanding. Constantly engaged in an adding-up process. They expand and express their relationship complicity in the creative process, never subtracting, but aggregating; never subjugating, but complementing.

Suspiro‘s celebratory thread runs through the transition between adolescence and adulthood, and is fuelled by mental, emotional and social developmental urges. This is a place where Bárbara Faden and Rita Paisana share experiences and worries, but it is also a growing ground, where they thrive together and individually. A changing and shifting landscape between dreams, innocence, naivety and the grief of something that changes over time.

Standing in the centre of the room, we can clearly see the individuality of the different works, but we can also perceive the connection and the way in which the works dialogue through movement and an atmosphere that stretches from the natural world of plants to a symbolic, mystical, delicate dimension of bows and beads. This is an intimate and feminine nature, not handled traditionally, but in an almost ironic, subversive tone – Rita Paisana adds. With different working processes, each brings their unique approach. Their perspectives from a common place build a cohesive narrative, an immersive, visual and conceptual experience. Suspiro is a sort of diary containing the shared poetic sensibility and experimental spirit that they both explored. The yearnings, emotions, desires and fragments of amulet moments which form part of the artists’ collective memory form a body of work with personal expression, although in clear dialogue, yet resistant to time.

Rita Paisana is interested in accumulation, excavation and collapse. Explaining that she has been developing an investigation into transformation through explosion and melting – and that she is currently becoming interested in the coexistence between the delicate (through the presence of elements such as necklaces, bows and beads) and the raw (as a result of the way she handles the material). Silver tongue (díptico) is an example of that.

On the other hand, Bárbara Faden explores a different colour palette, particularly in this exhibition. She generally draws on her archive of images, fragments or excerpts, and here she brings out plant and floral motifs, dances, whispers, stars and approximations (Coração-dragão). She sets natural choreographies, bringing the best attributes of Man, such as care and affection, to the plant and animal world (insects). This creates narratives through movement and repetition (Fireflies blinking on and off and O desejo da laranja).

Altogether, they conjure up an intense, intimate atmosphere laced with dreams and nostalgia, as suggested by Heart Connection, an installation with free-standing fruit bowls and goblets made of cut glass and moulded with sighs (the remaining ones), alluding to a kitsch and familiar atmosphere at the same time. There is a dynamic pull to inspire and challenge through different means that spring from images, visual and literary references in the “sacred and jointly devised universe manifested in Suspiro“^[4].

Seven candles were blown out at the opening. A cake, part of the installation I see, your love is teaching, was shared as an act of celebration and merriment. Perhaps influenced by Grebler’s quote – “[…] roots emerge and multiply over time, becoming ever more complex, while other ties are carried away by the wind […]” – and by Mário de Andrade, in his Macunaíma^[5] – a book I’m currently reading and which has made me ponder innocence and naivety -, I also consider Suspiro to be a farewell party-exhibition of alternating and changing dispositions that are carried away by time.

Innocence and naivety are common traits among those who have not yet been introduced to the more complex and often darker aspects of life. They can be seen as a virtue, as they are related to honesty, trust and the ability to see the world simply – but it may also somehow be a hindrance. Nietzsche even considers that innocence can be a roadblock to genuine human development and a form of escapism from reality. Throughout our conversation, the artists shared how it took time, and consequently maturity, for their friendly relationship to manifest itself in this exhibition. Founded on an explosive and private emotional background, the bond they cultivate has given way to a structured workspace, able to process emotions, impulses and, perhaps less consciously, the pains of growing up and their resulting mourning of the metamorphosing adolescent softness. Bárbara Faden points out that we cannot preserve innocence and naivety and that, once it is lost, it cannot be retrieved – but it can be reshaped. I finish with a quote from actress Beatriz Batarda, which Bárbara Faden has heard and repeated: “the aim is to transform information into love”. Suspiro celebrates friendship, relationships, but also transformative power and the endless possible viewpoints of reality.

The exhibition will run until May 30 and visits can be booked by emailing saltolisboa@gmail.com.

^[1] Vatican Saying, Epicurus, 52 (these eighty-one Sayings of Epicurus were found in 1888 by Karl Wotke in a manuscript in the Vatican library).
^[2] Ana Grebler on the exhibition text.
^[3] SPINELLI, M. Epicuro e o tema da amizade: a philía vinculada ao érôs da tradição e ao êthos cívico da pólis. Princípios: Revista de Filosofia (UFRN), [S. l.], v. 18, n. 29, p. 05–35, 2011.
^[4] Ana Grebler on the exhibition text.
^[5] ANDRADE, Mário de. Macunaíma. Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 2007.