DRAWING (cane field 289)
Construction process of the «Drawing (cane field 289)»
With the collaboration of Patricia Serrão
This project is under development on the land next to 289’s space association, located at Pontes de Marchil, in Faro.
The becoming of drawing
Edgar Massul has had a conversation with nature for a long time. Be it rivers or inlets, estuaries, parks or the sea, the artist transforms the material from these places into art. There is even a beautiful series of works made with grape dregs, which, over time, were transformed into ash paintings. The work carried out in collaboration with Angelo Gonçalves on the sugarcane field of the cultural space 289, in Faro, is an exercise or, better said, a «work in progress», because of a drawing in the landscape made with canes from the site, the idea is that this gesture can lead to the construction of a shelter. In other words, what has already been done can be seen as a drawing becoming architecture or the cane field as the foundation of a reflection on the relationship between man and nature.
An utopian, revolutionary, architect can be summoned here: Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, who, in 1804, published the treatise L’Architecture considérée sous le rapport de l’art, des mœurs et de la legislation. In that book, on plate 33, entitled «O Abrigo do pobre» (The poor man’s shelter), a naked man can be seen sitting in the shade of a tree, on a deserted island. From that place, the human figure observes the gods gathered in an opening in a cloudy sky, from which rays of sunlight come out. In the commentary on this engraving, Ledoux considers that in comparison with the poor man, the rich man has nothing to match. The former should be given, through the action of the architect, access to surplus assets.
The work of Edgar Massul and Angelo Gonçalves respects this principle: that of minimal intervention in nature using it for human purposes, in this case a temporary shelter, which will come to be, for protection of the body or contemplation of the universe.
Óscar Faria