“A Geography of Mysteries", by Volker Schnüttgen
The Cascais Cultural Centre is presenting the exhibition "A Geography of Mysteries", dedicated to the work of Volker Schnüttgen (b.1961), a German artist based in Portugal since the 1990s. Conceived in partnership with zet gallery, a contemporary art gallery located in Braga, the exhibition is an initiative of the D. Luís I Foundation and Cascais City Council and is part of the current programme of the Museum Quarter.
Curated by Helena Mendes Pereira, director and curator of zet gallery, the exhibition "A Geography of Mysteries" at the Cascais Cultural Centre is organised into four spaces that correspond to series of works that Volker Schnüttgen produced at different stages of his artistic practice, with wood as the guiding thread of the sculptures. Having also explored the plastic possibilities of stone and iron, it is wood, particularly oak wood, that has characterised his creative process.
Among the works on show, "Landscape #2", which opens the exhibition, reflects the influence that various experiences in Mozambique have had on Schnüttgen's practice. "Listening to na oak" brings together a set of pieces in which the artist truly unveils the senses of matter, in an exercise that reflects his work of constant experimentation and respect for the magic of trees. In "Encyclopedia of nature", the artist approaches the forms of figurative reality, showing the constant poetic dimension of his creative process, which combines the mastery of technologies and materials. By carving 22 books in wood, the artist evokes nature as the holder of all reasons, emotions and all initial forms of knowledge.
In the multidisciplinary work "HABITAT", a hybrid of installation and performance created in co-production with the dance collective LaborGras in 2010, Schnüttgen's sculptures are fused with dance, using software developed especially for the performance, "giving us the illusion that the movement takes place inside the object, as if art, born of nature, were the habitat of the body that is drawn in the air", observes the curator.
Volker Schnüttgen was born in Attendorn, Germany. In 1982 he began studying sculpture and printmaking at the Bremen University of the Arts. In 1992, he received a scholarship from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 1993 he has lived and worked permanently in Sintra, Portugal. In 1999 he won the Culture Prize of the Olpe Council, Germany. In 2004 he received a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for a training course in new technologies in Berlin. In 2008 he completed a Master's degree in Multimedia at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, where he also taught sculpture from 2010 to 2016. Since 1986 his work has been exhibited in Portugal and Germany. Spain, Sweden, Holland, Mozambique, the United States and Iran.
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More information: +351 214 815 660 | geral@fdl.pt
Organisation: Câmara Municipal de Cascais | Fundação D. Luís I | Bairro dos Museus