PROJECT STATEMENT

“Tell me, how was your day? Fragments of a trapped soul” is a daily series of small-format photos (Instax mini Fujifilm) that documents and portrays my relationship with my home during the isolation days. That relationship was intense since the office, sleeping area and kitchen are all inside the same place. It is a very mysterious approach that depicts the progressive dissolution of boundaries between the house’s divisions and between what is meant to remain private or public.

My body freedom was trapped inside less than 30 m2 which led to repercussions in my psychological and physical well-being. On every photo is registered the day, month and year that it was taken followed by a word or a sentence that describes the scene or object. Sometimes in a direct way, other times subliminal and more like a mirror of my mental state with a touch of irony. Every picture lay inside a small card box. The box symbolizes the house’s area limitation. The claustrophobic feeling of being inside a “shoebox”.

This project is a reflection of this period of uncertainty and constant forced adaptation to the evolution of the pandemic. Nothing could be taken for granted and the threat and implementation of lockdown was a constant. From now on and taking into account the impressibility of the world, normality will be the parallel coexistence with the unsettled.

The first lockdown body of works are part of Wien Museum collection (Vienna’s city museum) and can be consulted here.

MEDIUM

139 Fujifilm Instax mini, photo size: 8.6 cm x 5.4 cm / box size: 9 x 7 x 2.7 cm

ARTIST BIO

Ana Loureiro (Portugal, 1991) is a visual artist living and working in Vienna, Austria. She graduated in Fine Arts – Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Oporto University (2009 – 2013) and attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2013) during her last graduation semester. Currently, her artistic practice focuses on the relationship between spaces and their inner memories and through a cross-disciplinary approach. Loureiro not only focuses on the analysis of her personal experience and relation with past and present spaces or houses but also includes the analysis of the experiences of the other. Her projects have been presented in several countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Belgium and Portugal.