Matérias by Luísa Ferreira

Materias is a book about activating bodies in a deactivated space during a performance, a moment in time long gone, when collision was turning everything into matter. The experience of the bodies in contact with the heat, iron and sawdust turned everything into matter.

One night in a bar in Bairro Alto, my friend J. F. N. told me that he had the key to the carpentry shop at Central Tejo in Belém.

João invited his ex-boyfriend and we went there on the 8th of September 1991. We spent the day there. I followed them through the space they were feeling and experiencing until exhaustion. They went undressing, mixing their bodies with the materials. Matter impregnated their bodies. Bodies became matter. I watched and I photographed. A spontaneous performance in an abandoned industrial space. Iron, wood, sawdust, stairs, white sheet, objects, dust, light. The heat of summer and the humidity of the river turned everything into matter. The experience of the body in contact with iron, with wood shavings, the reunion, being there like a voyeur, not provoking, letting it flow. A sweet slow dance. L.F

Editing and Sequencing: Luísa Ferreira and Vanessa Winship