Diafragma, Vhils’ latest exhibition in Lisbon
Diafragma: an exhibition about our dark side.
Alexandre Farto, known as Vhils, presents a new exhibition at the Vera Cortês gallery.
The artist, who has accustomed us to the play of positive and negative in his mural sculptures, takes up the theme again by playing with light.
Diafragma is conceived as a rupture that our eye will reconstruct. You have to move around to discover the faces hidden behind the neon tubes.
A long, slow process of reproduction from photographs invites us to enter a fascinating chiaroscuro.
A critique of hypertechnology.
The artist Vhils has accustomed us to reconstructing and finding the human behind the appearance, the façade. The approach is identical with the fragments of light torn from the black. But they can also be fragments torn from the light.
Diafragma uses a particular technique. Vhils has painted neon tubes opaque white. Once lit, all the painted parts are revealed in black.
The artist wants us to think about the excess of technology in our lives. To the point where we forget to look around and discover human beings.
Urban landscapes – the world that fascinates Vhils – also reveal their luminous dimension, at once dangerous and reassuring.
In one of the spaces in the Vera Montês gallery, pixelated shutters invite us to reflect further.
Through the shutters, we are led to question our relationship with the human being. Who’s looking at whom? This is the question underpinning these astonishing sculptures.
During his visit to Diafragma www.lisbonne-affinités.com had the pleasure of meeting the artist. The 36-year-old is as shy as he is resolutely determined in his art.
From the street to the world, an original artistic expression.
Alexandre Farto, from the south bank of the Tagus in Lisbon, was born in 1987. He began his career as a graffiti artist at an early age. In the 2000s, graffiti and urban intervention were still in their infancy.
But Vhils soon found his own style: he reworked the bumps and hollows in walls with a drill and an embroidery machine.
Since then, the artist has exhibited all over the world, including Hong Kong, Brussels, Brazil and China.
Where the urban questions the human, he likes to say.
His latest magnificent project is the azulejo panel at the Orly airport terminal.
Impressive technique and presence.
But go and see Diafragma, where the artist once again questions the weight of social networks and the internet. And asks the question: what about human beings?
Diafragma informed
The Diafragma exhibition has taken up residence at the Vera Cortès gallery. It will remain there until 11 January 2025.
João Saraiva 16, 1o | 1700-250 Lisboa,
Tel (+351) 213 950 177
Also read the article about Vhils on RFI