Cortar para contar as marcas da ausência

Abstract

In this autobiographical arts research, I seek to understand the gesture “to cut” in creating a series of artworks, specifically in printmaking and photography, which take place from the problem of absence that moves my artistic project. Therefore, I aim to establish connections between artworks produced throughout my undergraduate path to reflect on what this gesture has generated in my art production between 2020 and 2022. The starting point for the creative processes presented in this text is the experiences of absence that cross my subjectivity and my understanding of my own identity, with particular attention to the lack of a father figure and my perception of the city where I was born. The text emphasizes the artistic process and breaks down the initial intentions of the research, the problems and solutions found during the production of the works, reaching a reflection on the poetic instructions of the “cut” gesture, both on the materiality of the artworks, as well as the immateriality of the stories about life and memory. This text also shows the emotions that emerge during the creation processes, revealing the change in my perspective in the face of the failures and solutions I found, awakening new occurrences for the new stories yet to be told within the act of cutting, creating thus spaces of visibility not only for the absences but also for the presences that constitute me as a person and an artist.