Between corners: the fragility of traces

“This Lisbon, which struts like a satin-clad lady in bright rags, is a city that appears majestic but, upon closer examination, reveals itself to be all cardboard and crude stitching.”

As Farpas (1871), Eça de Queirós

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Since 2018, Sonia Távora has been observing the transformations that the Portuguese capital has undergone. Buildings that hosted families for generations are becoming short-term rental accommodations, century-old shops are being replaced by generic stores, and entire neighborhoods are turning into “Instagrammable” backdrops. A city for sale. In the project Entre esquinas – a fragilidade dos rastros (Between corners: the fragility of traces), the artist represents the fragmented city on cardboard panels, an element used to wrap goods, highlighting the city-as-commodity state. She reinterprets the technique of woodcut printing, used in Portugal since the Middle Ages and brought to Brazil by colonizers, by replacing wood with cardboard. The monotypes on rice paper are delicate, dreamlike records, like memories