Alcobaça, Portugal, 1977

FONSECA MACEDO – ARTE CONTEMPORÂNEA

Mapping landscapes, Marco Pires (Alcobaça, 1977) uses the back of old map prints to draw the graphite possible scenarios of the region represented on the map that, being on the back of the drawing, the observer cannot recognize. In these drawings there is a game between the artist and the observer, covering the geographical situation and presenting it as an idealized landscape. On the other hand, drawing builds a special field of subjectivity.
We know that the Map is an abstraction and that only on a scale of 1/1 would be the representation of what is real. Thus maps are rigorous as they may be, always a political interpretation, a vision of the winner or the loser, a projection of the future.
In 2015, João Pinharanda wrote: “Before we understand what Marco Pires’s work is about, we are seduced by its visual and plastic qualities”.