Filipa Frois Almeida
Work
homogeneizador de memórias
estado límbico
eu não costumava pensar
time heals
selbsporträt
Texts
Publications
About
Contact
In the expression of thought, in physical and emotional balance, in anguish and commotion, presence in eu não costumava pensar alludes to an ordinary body in limbo. It is dazzling to look at the moment of introspection. (Self)knowledge and personal (un)construction take place when the mind flows to distant, inward spaces. In bare duration, bounded by the present and the absent, between the external and the intimate, amid surface and depth, suspension looms. How much time does one get to be with oneself?
The title of this essay comes from a confession. “I didn't use to think” is the perplexed acknowledgement of an overlooked window to a private landscape. Where are we when we think? (Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind). In the temporal exercise of photographing different people during one hour of silence, I search for a pattern of inner reflection. From the first instant of tension, to a growing discomfort and alienation, until resignation in face of the imposed hiatus, the gaze changes. The restless body wanders and attention disperses.
"From my point of view, what is happening is that soul and spirit, in all their dignity and human dimension, are the complex and unique states of an organism. Perhaps the most indispensable thing for us, as human beings, to do is to remind ourselves and others of the complexity, fragility, finitude, and uniqueness that characterize us." Damasio, A. (2011). Descartes' Error. Themes & Debates.
The purpose of eu não costumava pensar is to capture the invisible in us: the instant we enter a journey into our interiority. Emergent in this common portrait is an opportunity for self-examination, a breach leading to a journey through states of soul.