Velharias Morais
A place where absence lives
Forget photography for an instant. Forget its potential for memorabilia, its memento mori whisper.
Instead, dwell on this magical place, Morais Antiques, celebrating the immortality of an intangible past for all eternity.
On a table we see human traces, vestiges of everyday life that give order to the apparent chaos of this curiosity emporium.
In fact, there is no chaos here, just a subtle, quasi-invisible cadence, the care with which the current owner places and vividly describes each object to visitors. They are more than dusty curios. The space is inhabited by the successive absences of all who lived, enjoyed and shaped each precious object.
Ana Paganini's poetic images are small tableaux vivants infused with magic, fairy tales where each physical and photogenic artifact transports us through all the world’s childhoods ever, both lived and dreamed. These delicate and enigmatic images demand our undivided attention, gradually revealing minute hidden details. Both the objects and images that portray them are time capsules, altars that oscillate between the sacred and the profane. A eulogy to all lives hidden within.
Think solely of photography now. Admit that every image is an artifice, always more hidden than revealed, where paths are signposted while never fully displaying their meaning. The reflected objects and dimensions ensconced in these images sing a ballad of death, resurrection, absence and presence. They are moments of an ancient eternity, reflected in a game of mirrors where past, present and future come together to celebrate the shared humanity of all our lives. - Susan Paiva translated by Rodrigo Vaz