The Mask, the Gesture, the Paper

Sofia Borges’ photographs are the result of a period she spent in Brasília in February 2017, when she photo¬graphed what was going on in the Brazilian Congress, at a time when the actions of Congress and the Senate were weighing more heavily on the political scene. Less than a year before, Congressmen and Senators had been highly visible during disturbing voting sessions, which culminated in the removal of the sitting President.

Sofia photographed in the Congress buildings during the period of the election of the new President of the Senate. There are two sides to each of the works in A máscara, o gesto, o papel. One side has photo¬graphs of slightly out of focus mouths, reproduced from the oil paintings by Urbano Villela celebrating previous Presidents of the Senate. On the other side are gestures extracted from photographs of legislative sessions.