Sem Terra à Vista
About Sem Terra à Vista
Sem Terra à Vista, curated by Paula Cabaleiro at Centro de Arte Oliva (Portugal), presents a new reading of the Norlinda and José Lima Collection through a reflection on the uncertainties that define our contemporary world. Rather than addressing isolated issues, the exhibition constructs a symbolic landscape in which migration, war, political polarization, climate change, social inequality and the fragility of democratic values emerge as interconnected expressions of a broader human and ethical crisis. Bringing together artists from different generations, cultures and artistic practices, the exhibition invites viewers to engage in critical reflection and to reconsider the moral, social and political foundations of the present.
Curatorial Dialogue
Within this curatorial framework, Show Me the Island (Enséñame la isla) acquires a particular resonance. Created in 1998 during Kcho's residency at the Atelier Calder in Saché, France, the work belongs to a series of mobiles developed during that period. The mobile introduces a physical dimension of movement, balance and oscillation. Drawing upon Calder's formal legacy as a tribute, Kcho transforms it into his own visual language to reflect on the human condition.
As the artist recalls:
"Enséñame la isla was created during my stay at the Atelier Calder residency in Saché. It was part of a series of mobiles I developed there. I kept it in my studio, and every day I would interact with it as a kind of ritual or game, striking the punching bag so that the sculpture would begin to rotate."
This gesture reveals the work as an active experience rather than a static object. A boat on one side and a punching bag on the other establish a fragile balance that is constantly altered through movement. The work does not merely represent uncertainty—it sets it into motion. Displacement, resistance and the search for orientation become physical, unstable and continuously negotiated experiences. Its title, Enséñame la isla, establishes a particularly compelling dialogue with Sem Terra à Vista. If the exhibition evokes a world where land has disappeared from the horizon, Kcho's work articulates the desire to find, recognize or imagine the island once again. Between the absence of certainty and the search for direction, the work condenses one of the exhibition's central questions: how do we inhabit a world in which every horizon remains uncertain?
Mónica González
