Construyendo un país

FÉLIX MULA | FILIPE BRANQUINHO

Félix Mula and Filipe Branquinho at the CARRASCO gallery - “Building a country”….

The simultaneous opening of the joint exhibition by Mozambican artists Félix Mula and Filipe Branquinho, by the Portuguese Pedro Carrasco, in the center of Madrid, and in the space of the mythical Solchaga restaurant – where the conviviality brought about by the good gastronomy helped to build democratic Spain - it is an excellent occasion for discover the contemporary creation of the African continent.

Photography, as medium, has a long tradition in Africa, which has been reassessed since the 90s, thanks to pioneers like André Magnin - the Parisian gallerist of Filipe Branquinho - and responsible for introducing in the Western market names like Seydou Keïta, Ojeikere, Jean Depara or Malick Sidibé. In a constantly changing context, accelerated by the advent of post-World War II independence, and building systems tendentially plural, photography has served as a way to document the social dynamics of countries as young as their populations. The testing of solutions policies that take place simultaneously with the building of states, sometimes multi-country, and where the memory of the wars of liberation, and the struggles between factions are still very present, offer a unique opportunity for reflection and production works, of which the Félix Mula and Filipe Branquinho series are paradigmatic.

FÉLIX MULA

Mula, university professor and artist, starts photographing as a child, supporting his father professional portraiture of family and public events. Discovery of the artistic dimension of the photography medium, and the acquisition of academic training opened to the already trained photographer in Mozambique a new dimension of knowledge, and the possibility of expressing oneself, using a family heritage of stories and affections. IDAS E VOLTAS addresses the remaking of a journey of almost a thousand kilometers, a walk undertaken by the artist's father who is part of the saga familiar, and that Félix Mula remade, transmuting memory into an initiatory experience. The philosophical dimension of the journey, which Mula links to Thoreau's work, allows know various aspects of the Mozambican reality.

Félix Mula won the most prestigious visual arts award held in Portugal: the NovoBanco Photo award, edition 2016.

artist page | Félix Mula

Idas e Voltas, series.

FILIPE BRANQUINHO

CHAPA 100 and SHOWTIME, by Filipe Branquinho, are a proposal to re-read the heritage and social experience of Mozambique. The first series is a reproduction of the informal means of transport used in Maputo, using utility vehicles in the absence of reliable public transport offer, and reveals the look of the trained architect that existed before the artist, his attraction to urban structures and their significance. SHOWTIME, the name given to rooms rented by the hour in the Maputo red light district, evokes the work of two historical Mozambican photographers, José Cabral and Ricardo Rangel. It is also a continuity of the Ocupações project, in which Branquinho presents, in pose and large format – can we see Courbet ?? – anonymous professionals, represented in their work context, surrounded by their tools and work equipment. The same dignity, through a pose representation, is given to sex workers, with whom Branquinho establishes a relationship of proximity and trust, similar to a regular customer, but here, the obsession is fully satisfied by the possibility of capturing and working on women's stories, through the photographic narrative.

Filipe Branquinho works were selected for exhibition in 58ª Biennale di Venezia, 2019 edition, at Mozambican pavilion.

artist page | Filipe Branquinho