- Vítor Leal Barros
- Dec 14, 2019
Updated: Sep 16
About Alexandra Barbosa's art. Since I saw her work for the first time there was an instant connection, which extended to the personal field as we have known better each other. The work of Alexandra revolves around a beloved theme to me - the house - and it's interesting to see how other authors, non architects, think about it. Before any other image of the house, the first that ever visit my head is the 'house' as a space. On the daily exercise of my work, I try to understand how people live or could possible live. My quest is essentially achieve a proposal that fit these specific ways of living and, if it is possible, enhance it, by designing solutions that can generate some other forms of dwelling. The greatest difficulty in this whole process is to find the balance between the materialization of the idea and the freedom that the same idea gives to the audience who will be experiencing it. What do I mean with this? The idea of producing an architecture that overlaps the dwelling, in which space characteristics require users of living this or that way, doesn't please me so much. My everyday question is: How far do I have the right to intervene, while proposing new ways of living? I think this will be forever the question of my life. The boundary between a 'democratic' architecture while creative is very tenuous, History proves it. The most extraordinary works, by the creative point of view, are often examples of a 'dictator' architecture, not to say almost always. Baroque is a good example of that. Producing intentionally, by space design, an idea of illusion on users is, by itself, a form of manipulation, no matter how generous the intentions might be in its genesis. By carefully analyzing Alexandra's work, the question I put myself before arises even more pertinent. For her, the house is primarily a refuge, a place where we can put our emotions at safe and defend our memories. It's a concept of house as an uterus, which protects and nurtures, which cares and welcomes. All her iconography wander around the idea of the house as home, of the house as affection, with all the inherent vicissitudes. Alexandra did not materialize in her prints the image of a perfect home. Sometimes we are faced with a kind of shell-house, protective, sometimes it appears as an eternal maze, by the overlap of shapes that outline spaces and confusing paths, stairways and corridors that seem to lead us nowhere. However, despite the greater or lesser serenity of each picture, to Alexandra's the house is always a refuge place, it is the uterus that we can always return, no matter how wandering the way might be. It is the mother. It is the house that welcomes the faithful and the prodigal son. It is the background of the eternal human imperfection. Above all, it is the house that doesn't dictate rules and understands. These are the houses we want Alexandra.
