Abissology - Horizon of Events

“Gusmão and Paiva depict speculative fictions of nonexistent situations that activate contradictory reasoning, as if their experiments contained a techno-scientific guarantee that links the mechanics of observing phenomena to timeless imagery in a perfectly logical way. The visual structure of this metaphysics is driven by uncanniness, a trait particularly relished in these creators of impossible, disconjointed tales that generate fields of tensions and define spaces that negate objective reality.” – Teresa Velásquez “In the context of the research conducted by the artists for their latest project – Abissology: Towards a Transitory Science of the Indiscernible – on the ontological problem of being, they [João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva] identified, through K. Popper, a change in the Greek paradigm for comprehending the world. In the pre-Socratic era of Parmenides of Elea, at a certain moment the idea that the planets are at different distances gained acceptance: the cosmos ceased to be a fixed canvas. Observation of the Moon re-dimensions the interpretation of reality and carries with it a perceptive duplicity in its waxing and waning phases. It is accepted that the Moon is a singular and unique object, and that, despite its phases, its invisibility does not deprive it of a body.” – Natxo Checa