PRESS RELEASE
ANA MARIA PACHECO
EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL 2013
Sculpture and Prints at St Albert’s Catholic Chaplaincy
23 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD | Tel. 0131 650 0900
1-30 August 2013 | Mon-Fri 11am-5pm
http://scotland.op.org/edinburgh
Memória Roubada I & II
Sculpture, polychromed wood
Dark Event I-VII
Drypoints
At the hear t of this exhibition are two sculptural works characteristic of both Pacheco’s practice and her personal
and political concerns about the exercise of power. Displayed facing one another, each work is a wooden cabinet
shelved with rows of sculpted heads - the heads in the first piece are anguished and flushed with colour, whilst
those they face remain pale and still. Entering a dialogue across the exhibition space, the works together speak
both to the brutal history of colonisation and to Protestant and Catholic religious traditions.
Presented in the beautiful context of the chaplaincy, the exhibition also includes a series of the ar tist’s drypoint
prints entitled Dark Event (2007) and a documentary about the ar tist’s work narrated by Colin Wiggins, produced
to accompany the exhibition of her work at The National Gallery, London in 1999.
St Albert’s Catholic Chaplaincy serves staff and students of the University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh Napier University and Queen Margaret University.
Events
12 August | 7-9pm
A talk by Colin Wiggins on the work of Ana Maria Pacheco
Venue: St Alber t’s Chapel
Tickets: £5.95 www.colinwigginstalksanamariapacheco.eventbrite.co.uk/
13 August | 7-8pm
Response in Dance by Thania Acarón followed by a discussion with Jolyon Mitchell
Venue: Venue Three, Assembly, George Square Gardens
Reception with viewing from 5.30pm, 23 George Square
Booking: www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/7390478119/eac2
For further information and images, please contact
Susan Pratt | pca@prattcontemporaryart.co.uk
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www.prattcontemporaryart.co.uk
Colin Wiggins, Special Projects Curator at The National Gallery London
Jolyon Mitchell, University of Edinburgh
ANA MARIA PACHECO | EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL 2013
Sculpture and Prints at St Albert’s Catholic Chaplaincy
23 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD | Tel. 0131 650 0900
1-30 August 2013 | Mon-Fri 11am-5pm
http://scotland.op.org/edinburgh
Memória Roubada I & II
Sculpture, polychromed wood
Dark Event I-VII
Drypoints
Translated literally, Ana Maria Pacheco’s title Memória Roubada means ‘stolen memory’.
Memória Roubada I
A cabinet contains six disembodied heads that focus in a range of expressions on the pierced hear t before them.
Images of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, which gained currency in the Counter Reformation, show seven swords,
each representing a sorrow that pierces Mary’s hear t. Here, swords are replaced by daggers with all their conno-
tations of violent betrayal. The cabinet recalls the Por tuguese oratorio, a domestic devotional altar containing
items associated with a saint, sometimes with prayers inscribed. On the doors of this ‘oratorio’ is a quotation
from a contemporary Brazilian poem describing the fate of the victims of colonisation, robbed of their memory:
OLHOS VAZADOS
Poked eyes
SEXOS CASTRADOS
Castrated sexes
CHUMBO NOS OUVIDOS
Shot in the ears
MÃOS ARRANCADAS
Severed hands
1
Memória Roubada II
It had been Pacheco’s intention from the outset to have a companion piece to Memória Roubada I of 2001 but
other projects intervened. In 2008, however, Memória Roubada II was completed and the two pieces were shown
together in All Hallows on the Wall, London. In contrast to the emotional display of the first piece, here the heads
stare resolutely forward, heedless of the silver shell (an ambiguous emblem – of renewal? exploitation?) on the
ground before them. The faces have the fathomless impassivity of identity photographs of Auschwitz detainees.
The text engraved in the slate base is par t of the last will and testament of Isabella de Castile in which she
expresses her wish for the inhabitants of the New World.
. . . Y NO CONSIENTAN NI DEN LUGAR QUE LOS INDIOS VECINOS E MORADORES DE
LAS DICHAS ISLAS E TIERRA FIRME, GANADAS E POR GANAR, RECIBAN AGRAVIO ALGUNO
EN SUS PERSONAS NI BIENES, MAS MANDEN QUE SEAN BIEN Y JUSTAMENTE TRATADOS.
. . . And do not consent or allow the Indians who live on the said islands and mainland,
whether already in our possession or to be won in the future, to suffer any offence to
their person or their goods, but see to it that they are well and justly treated. 2
Memória Roubada II is the most over tly historical meditation on the consequences of colonisation in all of
Pacheco’s sculpted work.
Dark Event I-VII
This series is a reflection on our contemporary world, of power that is exercised and remains unchecked. Order,
stability and permanence are over but there is hope for a new perception and a shift in the current sense of
values. This will only be possible, however, when we cease to admire force, to subjugate the weak and humiliate the
conquered. 3
1
2
3
José Lobo
Isabella de Castile, 1504
Olgária Matos
Ana Maria Pacheco | Memória Roubada I
Polychromed wood, gold leaf, slate base (2001)
200 x 300 x 300 cm
Photo: Morning Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral, 2012
www.prattcontemporaryart.co.uk
Ana Maria Pacheco | Memória Roubada II
Polychromed wood, gold leaf, slate base (2008)
207 x 240 x 300 cm
Photo: All Hallows on the Wall, London, 2008
www.prattcontemporaryart.co.uk
Ana Maria Pacheco | Dark Event I - VII
Drypoint
Printed by Mar tin Saull on Somerset Textured soft white 300gsm
Edition size: 15 plus 2 ar tist’s proofs, 2 printer’s proofs and 2 archive proofs
Plate: 68cm x 60.7cm
Sheet: 77cm x 68.2cm
Published: Pratt Contemporary
www.prattcontemporaryart.co.uk