O SUDÁRIO
THE SHROUD
at the Maritime Museum of Sesimbra
from July to January 2022
Context
An invitation from the Maritime Museum of Sesimbra for an exhibition of another project by Ângela Menezes - Sibylla's Studio to accompain the permanent show on fishing traditions in Sesimbra, together with the A CAÇADA project.
Since 2019, the main focus of the Sibylla's Studio project is the registration and illustration of marine species of the Portuguese coast, as well as the freshwater species that inhabit the national territory and thus show the enormous aquatic biodiversity that surrounds us and with which we co-inhabit in this territory and the making of thematic exhibitions about overfishing, threatened species and the sustainability of marine life as a food resource.
Content
Illustrations of some of the most common marine species fished traditionally in Sesimbra, making a correspondence with the various sections of the permanent exhibition at the museum concerning the ancient fishing techniques and fishermen practices .
Starting from an ancient Japanese technique of fish illustration (GYOTAKU), where the animal itself constitutes the printing matrix, and using our knowledge of marine biology, we make an illustration of the species we have collected, we make a counterpoint to what is presented by the scientific illustration: instead of the generalization and summation of all the morphological features that characterizes a species , we present an image of a specific animal, on its natural scale, with its particular characteristics recording the day and place where it was fished. These images are thus a "holy shroud" of that animal, the marks left by that particular living being at the time of his death.
All the marine animals illustrated were purchased at the local market, at the fishmonger's or kindly offered by fishermen in this village and the intention with this work is to show these species with another look, that of the close and personal, before it will be transformed into food, into another anonymous component of any gastronomic specialty of our daily lives.
A short interview at the museum about the exhibition