Disparate Helena Martins-Costa

In "Disparate," presented in the Gabinete, Helena Martins-Costa (Porto Alegre, Brasil, 1969) manipulates archival photographs and video frames, decapitating figures, creating new anatomies, and employing black and white to imbue past images with new meaning. The quadruped figures, which the artist describes as "monsters," echo the grotesque horrors of Goya, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
 

"The choice of black and white 'injects disturbing effects, challenges the automatisms of vision, alters the structure of images, and reduces them to the original chromatic range of photography,'" notes Annateresa Fabris, author of the exhibition text. Martins-Costa transforms photography into a self-reflective practice, inviting viewers "to look repeatedly at these unsettling images and confront the strangeness nestled within each of us."
 

The exhibition are under the artistic direction of Claudio Cretti, conceived by the Instituto de Cultura Contemporânea (ICCo), and supported by the Ministry of Culture through the Culture Incentive Law. The I Expository Cycle 2025 events are supported by Interfood, Casal Garcia, and Jägermeister.