Audiovisual – Motion Graphics
Editorial
Photography
From outside
to other windows
Windows: Part 1
There are the things that are out in the open and then there are the things that are hidden, and life has more to do, the real world has more to do with what is hidden, maybe. You think?
In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life With Saul Leiter, Tomas Leach, 2013, min.45–46.
When André Vicente Gonçalves undertook his photographic project ‘Windows of the world’ in 2009, he examined not only the shapes of windows but also everything surrounding them—materials, colours, balconies, architectural details, planters, curtains, objects—demonstrating that windows within the same city share many similar elements. What the artist and the viewer do not know, for obvious reasons, is what occurs within those spaces. Even after living in a building for years, one becomes acquainted with neighbours, but may have never entered their home, wondering who they really are and making suppositions about how they live. In a sense, Adas Vasiliauskas' quarantine portraits (2020), have attempted to provide us with a glimpse of families at their windows by using his drone; however, these were staged scenes rather than authentic moments of indoors life.
During the initial months of the Covid-19 crisis, while strolling through the alleys of the residence, I took numerous photographs of buildings’ windows, paying closer attention to the architecture during daylight and to social life at night. However, since most windows lacked curtains, ethical concerns arose if I was invading people's privacy by photographing their windows intrusively without their consent. For the sake of the project, I focused my attention on lights and the few objects placed near the windows rather than on individuals in compromising situations. I frequently noticed that amidst the multitude of windows, the contrast between cool and warm lights mingling with the darkness of the night not only evoked a sense of magic, but also smallness in facing such dazzling presence of life. These lights can be contemplated as artistic compositions that trigger imagination, as behind them could be a family sharing dinner, a father telling a story to his daughter, people doing sport, a couple watching TV or making love. A lightened room hides infinite possibilities that do not necessarily need to be seen but rather imagined.
