The creative engine that triggers the new works of Inês Botelho, “Travessia em revolução” being an excellent example, is in the places (architectures and landscapes) and in their translation on the human plane (sometimes in the perceptive and sensorial aspect, sometimes in the social aspect). Both (place and human) are crossed at length by Drawing (hypotheses, verifications, retreats, advances) and are returned to Space (urban, rural, aquatic, architectural or astronomical) and Matter (body, water, earth, clay) in the form of Total Sculpture. And we understand this totality in its integration and complementarity with the pre-existing architecture, in this case, the Sociedade Instrução e Recreio and the celebratory context that surrounds this presentation. This spatial framing, in turn, reorganizes itself into a new phenomenology, a physical, geometric and geological spatio-temporal reality, now inseparable from this installation construction. Here, the created object and the frame where it is inscribed are in a same narrative, which presupposes their total interdependence, embraces us, and throws us into a non-logic in which effects may precede causes. The desert is the structure itself, the Present is vernacular and the volatile appears in stone and lime, returning us to our precarious relationship with the World and reminding us of the fragility of our journey (of humanity in general, but also of History and Culture in particular).

“Travessia em revolução”, an unpublished work by Inês Botelho, is presented at Sociedade Instrução e Recreio de Elvas, by ZDB, and in the context of a challenge regarding the celebration of 15 years of MACE – António Cachola Collection. In its operations, ZDB is characterized by challenging artists to produce new works, accompanies their restlessness, offers production means and presentation conditions. This was one of the reasons that led the gallery to invite Inês Botelho, an artist with whom it has maintained a close relationship since the beginning of the 2000’s, making presentations and various productions, and with whom, last year, it resumed work in preparation for its next solo exhibition scheduled for next September, in Lisbon.

ZDB, located in downtown Lisbon, is a center for the creation, production and diffusion of contemporary art with a regular program in visual, sound and performing arts, as well as an educational service. Now in its 28th year of activities, it has become an unavoidable place in contemporary Portuguese culture, gathering around it a large community of artists and a dedicated public.

It is not surprising that this cultural association has accepted the invitation: on the one hand, it nurtures admiration for the Museum and the work of the Cachola family, on the other, it is part of this Portuguese network actively engaged in creating conditions for contemporary art to be part of everyday life and to be considered a fundamental tool for learning to deal with the world and, above all, with others.