Julião Sarmento
Julião Sarmento
Nuanced by mechanisms that unite references, objects and images, Sarmento’s oeuvre is informed by a diversity of artistic practices commonly associated with the post-modernist discourse, navigating through initial allusions to post-Pop practice and later post-conceptual enactments, characteristic of his collages and narratives with no logic interrelations, as well as experiments in the field of film, photography, installation and site-specific work, later culminating in his association to the “return to painting” discourse symptomatic of the international scene of the eighties. Constructing a dialogue regarding a set of recurrent themes, his work explores the longing of desire and certain instances of violence, transforming the feminine in a simulated body of ambiguous relations, submitted to an anonymous look. The insistence on these concepts, that connect and disconnect interchangeably, follow up an enigmatic sense like the one surrounding existence itself, pointing out the lacanian observation where the object is only attained when lost, reminding us of the impossibility to capture, define or satisfy our perception of desire. Ultimately, the longing culminates in the search for an interior, in attempts to reframe memory: what is represented is the space-in-between – between identity, the self, the other, impulse and fetich. What remains is paradoxically what is absent.
Julião Sarmento (1948-2021) was born in Lisbon, Portugal. Having represented Portugal at the 46th Venice Biennale (1997), it’s important to mention his participation in events like Documenta 7 (1982) and 8 (1989) in Kassel, Paris Biennale (1980), Venice Biennale (2001) and São Paulo Biennale (2002). His work has been susceptible to several solo exhibitions in notable Portuguese and international institutions, as Berardo Collection Museum (2023) in Lisbon; Serralves (2012; 1992) in Porto; Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain (2014) in Nice; Contemporary Arts Center (2011) in Ohio; Parrish Art Museum (2011) in New York; Tate Modern (2010) in London; Van Abbemuseum (2004) in The Netherlands; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (1999) in Madrid; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (1999) in Washington D.C.; and Haus der Kunst (1997) in Munich. He also participated in other prominent group exhibitions as Unexchangeable (2018) in WIELS, Belgium; Desert X (2017) in Desert Lodge (Room 22), Palm Springs; Absense is the Highest Form of Presence Robert Gober, Julião Sarmento, Luc Tuymans (2009) in Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium; Julião Sarmento and Cindy Sherman. From Beyond the Pale (1994) in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Metropolis International Art Exhibition (1991) in Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin; or Terrae Motus (1984) in Fondazione Amelio, Italy. His work is represented in many private and public collections, from Europe to North and South America, as well as Japan and Israel.