About

SOLARIS Artist Residency

Francisco Tropa 17.06.2019 – 05.07.2019

 

Francisco Tropa, La Moustache cachée dans la barbe, 2018, magazine, 96 pages, 28,5 x 22 cm, co-edited with Thomas Boutoux, designed by Atelier Pedro Falcão, published Paraguay Press with the support of Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, edition of 200 copies

During his residency, Francisco Tropa did research on medical newspapers and magazines to collect medical-related advertising. The material was used for a screen print edition titled Les Poumons et le coeur, which was the latest part of his project La Moustache cachée dans la barbe. 'The result is a "world" very much his own, nourished by diverse sources including a rigorously antihierarchical array of references, figures from the ancient and modern worlds, science and magic' (Guillaume Désanges). Francisco Tropa (b. 1968, Lisbon, Portugal) lives and works in Lisbon. 'Portuguese artist Francisco Tropa is the author of a complex body of work, freely combining a broad range of techniques, from the most basic skills to virtuoso tours de force. Mixing art and technical ingenuity, Tropa’s creative vision embraces prototypes and machines, but also paintings, screen prints, photography and performance' (Guillaume Désanges). Tropa not only creates objects, but he also elaborates the specific constellations of reference in which they are ideally read. His complex practice, which includes sculpture, performance, photography, drawing, and print making, is thoroughly grounded in the history of media he uses, ancient art, philosophy and literature, as well as classical themes such as the memento mori, ritual, gambling, and time. Not so much a practitioner of the contemporary, he is an artist more oriented toward quiddities and origins. He therefore seeks to understand and represent the timeless and essential qualities of art, of what makes art what it is. Sculpture has been a permanent interest in the artistic practice of Francisco Tropa, who works since the beginning of the 90s and has gained a significant attention by institutions and the critique. Representing Portugal in the Venice Biennale (2011), he also participated in Istanbul Biennial (2011), Manifesta (2000), Melbourne Biennial (1999) and Bienal de São Paulo (1998). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Tropa www.grandcafe-saintnazaire.fr/en/projets/674-tropa.html