"Here we play with the idea of ​​dirt, of the erratic; mixing another kind of gamut of colors (...) Barreiro told me that the initial idea of ​​the project would be that of continuing to relate to themes such as reproducibility and copy; to continue to use the materials he has been working on in recent years. However, I do not mean by this that he remains stagnant or static in his investigation, because at various times he mentioned the use of other materials that could take him elsewhere while remaining in the same sphere mentioned above. This led him, at the beginning of our conversations, to try to understand the way he wanted to encompass the architecture of the exhibition space. He reflected on the architecture of NO· NO’s gallery space without entering a more classical type of distribution or assembly. He was, of course, always very interested in the two columns that exist in the room and how that perimeter is castrated by them. From there, he began developing sculptures that faced the ground as a type of disused archeological architecture. Previous works that were related to the idea of ​​casts, of positive and negative, which provide a pictorial hue within the sculptural sphere, were fundamental to the project in question. (...)

The works are based on a casting process, in which there is a cast of plaster, and during which red wax is poured. The plaster cast contains a main shape, the one usually utilised, but Barreiro is interested in the other side of this shape. (...) hand textures, erosions, stains from the wax itself that blend with the shape and the copying process. It’s a very organic shape in contrast to the other side, which consists of a smooth shape that retains the reflection of formal elements: relatively architectural or deriving from some type of dismantling, as in this case. The copy can even appear inside as well as outside the cast, alike a detached skin. (…) 

Barreiro is not interested in reaching the end of the traditional process and so he alters our judgment in relation to the nobility of these materials since, according to him, we are showing an elliptical process. The materials we look at here are transitional and in a traditional casting process they would be disposable. 

In the gallery's first space, Barreiro was inclined to show 7 to 10 tests, small-scale material valuation exercises that jointly establish a spatial reiteration. Regarding his motives, he has been working with a scrap metal yard, called Hierros Gagos, which deal with metallic surfaces from the urban context.  (1) "

(1) Tiago de Abreu Pinto / exposition text (excerpt) 


PABLO BARREIRO
Another Phase of the Form
27.01 – 26.03.2022

Curated by : Tiago de Abreu Pinto
Photography : Bruno Lopes
Video : João Silva
Graphic editing : Leonel Duarte
Sound : Pablo Barreiro
Special thanks to : Ivo Lapa