The well known Portuguese street artist Vhils, whose rather unique scratching "grafitti" technique using explosives has drawn people's attention everywhere in the world, had an exhibition going on at Museu da Electricidade over the weekend which prompted Mia and I to head towards Belém, where the former Central Thermo Electrical power unit is located, not knowing what to expect, once it was clear that his artistic pieces couldn't't simply be carried around as paintings.
I was touched by the poetry in Vhils's approach to the city as a body of multiple faces in which anonimity inevitably comes to life and becomes suspended as the decaying buildings they have been imbedded in. I had only been aware of the scratcching technique used in walls and was therefore not expecting to see any other artistic styles used in metal, doors, billboards and styrofoam. The styrofoam carvings did mesmerise me.
The word "Restituir" (Vhils so intelligently used in one of his works), which can be translated as to return, to give back, to restore, to restitute the right to and to retain does summ up what his work is all about ...
May he be praised for sharing his Art with us ...
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