To move forward in life, it is important for us to know where we have come from. Thus, rather than dismissing the past as something long dead and gone, it is something that needs to be revisited. And that is the main idea behind Portuguese artist Vasco Araujo's latest exhibition of his works 'Hereditas' which are on display at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, Altinho. “ Hereditas means heritage. In this case, it refers to the heritage of our past. This heritage is important as we have to look to the past to do the projection of the future,” says Araujo, who has a deep interest in the human condition or psyche which he explores through his works.
Born in Lisbon, Araujo completed his first degree in Sculpture in 1999 at FBAUL (Lisbon University School of Fine Art), and attended the Advanced Course in Visual Arts at Maumaus in Lisbon, from 1999 to 2000. Art, he says, gave him the freedom to talk about things that he found important.
Since then, using different art media like paintings, sculpture and film for his artistic expression, he has participated in various solo and group exhibitions both in Portugal and abroad also taking part in residency programmes, such as The University of Arts, Philadelphia (2007); Récollets, Paris (2005); and the Core Program (2003/04), Houston. In 2003, he was awarded the EDP Prize for New Artists. Some of his latest solo exhibitions include 'Potestad' at the MALBA - Museu de Arte Latino-Americana de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.(2015), “Under the Influence of Psyche”, The Power Plant, Toronto (2014) and “Debret”, Pinacoteca do Estado de S. Paulo, S. Paulo (2013). Much of his works focus on the concept of identity. He also delves a lot into Portuguese colonial history and his works are heavily inspired from works of the opera, dance, theatre and literature. In fact, Araujo himself is a trained opera singer, which he asserts did influence his art. “The opera is an old art and celebrates the fate and past of celebrated artists and philosphers. It teaches you how to use the voice, which together with language are a core part of a person's identity,” says Araujo. Opera, he further adds, also teaches your how to project yourself.
“ It is always about the other. You define yourself by how you look at the other. For instance if you are in a foreign region, you would observe how others behave and act according to the accepted norms. If you divert from this it could lead to a fight, ” he explains. “ Thus we have mirrors around us. It is about how you see and construct the other and thus construct yourself through the other.”
His current exhibition, his first in Goa, consists of four video installations of different durations that make one pause and ponder. The first in the collection is Hereditas, from which the exhibition gets its name. “ In this video we see a young girl emerging from the forest and walking through the corridors to a room where she finds a chest of bones. She then attempts to construct a figurine out of these,” reveals Araujo. The second one is Insula which refers to the idea of the island as a metaphor for a human being and how a person's loneliness motivates him to reinvent his identity. The video showcases a man who is trapped on an island who is continuosly trying to get out of there. The third video is Telos, which is Greek for knowledge and is based on the life of the great philosopher Diogenes of Sinope also called 'The Cynic'. Sinope is said to have become a beggar and roamed around the streets , carrying a lantern in his hand during the day while looking for an honest man. Thus the incessant quest for what brings happiness to a person is explored through this video. The fourth video is Retrato or Portrait, which is a video about a memory of a place. “ I have tried to show how the objects of a house can talk. The many portraits in the house tell about the people that used this space- who lived and played there,” says Araujo, who has incorporated characters from both Portuguese and African culture who narrate tales of supremacy and power games as well as subjugation. Araujo has borrowed paintings from 20th century painter and writer Eduardo Malta as portraits for this video. In the meanwhile, Araujo is already working on a few more ideas. “ One of the projects will be a video series on the notion of the epic, while the sculptures project will delve into colonial problems,” informs Araujo.
