Separated Land #29

Separated Land

The history of conquest and possession of land is the history of life and in it, of the human species.

Since the most remote consciousness of the notion of place – occupied space, of shapes determined by natural and provoqued circumstances – and beyond its biological determinants, it has been developed on the human mind in all of its rational and sensitive manifestations, the need to be bonded to the surrounding, to be part of it, adapting it to itself and dominating it.

For this emerging being, intelligent and determined though, this process, not rarely impetuous, implicates the constant marking of space and signaling of limits/borders, assuming this as a task of most vital practical and symbolic importance.

It is starting from the symbolic construction of the notions of space, place, the significance of “inside/belonging to” and “outside/not belonging to”, of what is contained and what is container, that is somewhat established the notion of security and shelter, with all the consequences that this apprehension triggers on its own environment and on the remaining beings that live and are part of it.

The dominating “presence” as a counterpoint to the “absence” through domination, the other as an end to achieve by taking, incorporating or annulling, or the other as our measure, the gauge of our real proportions, as the end or as boundary line of our appropriative reach.

What in us, individuals, starts as a genetic impulse, transforms on the collective into phenomenon of territorial identity, concepts of space/nation, belonging, group, bonding.

Defining the Human, was, is and will be what he does on the permanent usage of a complex network of languages and codes, electing colours, materials, graphics and objects that reinforce that marking, emphasizing the similarities and denouncing the differences, on a primary and uncontrollable appropriation of values and rights.

This is a vibrant and disturbing question unresolved in each one of us, as much in our confined personal dimension as in the wide collective dimension.

separated land;
from here I depart, from here I cross delicately the outer places, reaching the other.

2014
Fernando Gaspar

Fernando Gaspar
was born in 1966, in Portugal.
He began his journey in drawing and practice of watercolor. Full time painter since 1986, has on its way some national awards, collective exhibitions and more than 50 solo exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. Over these 30 years, with a philosophy of constant renewal of media, materials and techniques, the plasticity of his work has evolved towards a more reflective and contemporary approach.
www.fernandogaspar.com