Main fantôme (et autres contact sur mur)

It was in the working-class neighborhood of Ajuda in Lisbon that I first noticed people wiping their dirty hands on walls, leaving marks that I like to photograph. I continued to collect these kinds of marks in Montpellier, near the construction site for the new tram line, and then again in Lisbon. Printing the images in a format specific to each one reproduces the marks in a size close to scale 1. This work refers to concepts such as the use of the street, unintentional art, manual labor, the positive hand, and “de-situation.”

These first images could be the beginning of a longer series, regardless of where the next ones come from, and give rise to research and production motivated by the quality of texture that traditional and artisanal processes could bring compared to digital printing. Photogravure on polymer, construction of engraving matrices based on coating, monotype on embossing, the resulting production will involve small formats in photogravure and large formats in engraving (prints from matrices and monotypes on embossing). It will bring about an evolution towards more plastic results, inspired by the spontaneous gesture taken as its subject. These techniques, at the crossroads of photography, imprinting, and engraving, would restore the materiality of the wall and the gesture on this surface in the images.