“The itineraries of the world are condensed into plastic itineraries in the objects. The rapture becomes objectual.”
Maria José Cavaco

“Ao alcance do olhar” is based on the plastic characteristics of the surface of pictorial objects. It is an exercise of self-reference of pictorial objects, which is centred on the development of their formal qualities, their physical nature and the limits of the available architectural space, in which the importance of the piece lies in its objectual character. In terms of territory and site reference, there are three initial conditions: Light, matter and space, in the geographical, geological, meteorological and chemical components.

As territory, matter promotes the site (Island) by conjuring up textures and coatings that grow in space like pictorial objects, in which the element shadow (which is traditionally a characteristic of sculpture) amplifies their immaterial and illusory dimension.

In competing with form, volume and texture, light as a vehicle affects the physical space according to the moment it is observed, where the object is transfigured not only by its shadow but also by its colour, surface and volume.

Objects located in space have the property of altering that same space through their scenographic qualities, namely those generated by the scale of the architectural space and the apparent movement which is suggested by the duplication of shapes through shadow. In addition to the site dimension they occupy, the objects express themselves through their interior and exterior spaces, thus they appropriate the surrounding architectural spaces in which they describe their trajectory freely, and create unfolded site-spaces within the reach of our gaze.

Filipe Franco

Filipe Franco Franco was born in Ponta Delgada (1961). He trained in painting at the Ar.Co Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual in Lisbon, where he was a monitor and teacher. He has taken part in several group and solo exhibitions and has developed public intervention projects. His work is featured in both public and private collections. He currently lives and works on São Miguel Island in the Azores.