Solo exhibition curated by Joerg Bader

Rialto6, Lisbon

20.01.2023 – 14.04.2023

André Cepeda has designed the new SOPRO exhibition specially for Rialto 6. Known for his explorations of the marginal areas of Porto and Lisbon, he keeps architecture in his focus, but turns his attention towards the Parthenon in Athens. Regarded as the summit of western architecture – remember the innumerable political, cultural and indeed financial institutions that have imitated the architectural style of a Greek temple – the artist presents the ruin in a fragmented way, like a broken mirror. And in fact, in cultivating Greek antiquity as an absolute model (other people may say a universal one) up to the present day, colonial and neo-colonial Europe is breaking its relationship with the rest of the world. In this way it prevents itself from thinking of other cultures on equal terms.

At Rialto 6 André Cepeda also presents a video for the first time. The final frame in the loop depicts four reinforced concrete columns somewhere on the outskirts of Lisbon. Showing Greek and contemporary columns one after the other, he suggests an arc going from the present to ancient times, but with the awareness that modern ruins no longer embody the charm of ancient ruins, given that they ineluctably refer us to the Anthropocene. The works made with lights, video projections and slides are projected on black backgrounds – evoking light from a black sun.

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