For this 9th edition of ARCOlisboa, we are presenting a proposal featuring new and recent works by Daniela Krtsch and Rui Horta Pereira, two artists whose work questions of identity and alterity, and the perspective of “self and other,” are very present, aligning closely with the theme «Le grand monde» proposed by curators Chus Martínez and Luiza Teixeira de Freitas for this year’s Opening section.

«Le grand monde» also refers to Pierre Lemaitre’s novel, which addresses the theme of reconstruction, and this curatorial proposal is conceived from this idea. Daniela Krtsch’s works bring us her suspended narratives, where the presence of the other is sensed — sometimes ambiguous and not explicit, other times mysterious, as if existing in a Hitchcockian off-screen space. Literary and cinematographic references are, in fact, very present in Daniela Krtsch’s pictorial universe.

Rui Horta Pereira presents the new pathways of the “peripatetic journey” he has been developing since 2021, which revisits Aristotle’s principle that teaching occurs through walking outdoors, in communion with his disciples. There is also room for a touch of irony and absurdity, very characteristic of Rui Horta Pereira’s work, with the pieces “Ditongo” and “Uma certa acomodação” (“A Certain Accommodation”).

It is (also) through empathy, knowledge, and sharing with others that each of us can reconstruct this “grand monde,” and Art is one of the ways we can initiate and make this process a reality. Time is pressing, and the will matters. — Ana Matos.