INFINISTERRA
Black Box, 2014. AV projection 25 min. color, scaffolding, zinc plates, iron, wood, water and debris, 650 x 400 x 250 cm
Building the Black Box
Axonometry Infinisterra Exhibition - Digital Model, Museu do Oriente, Galeria Nascente
Pantone, 2015. 840 photographs 10 x 7.5 cm format, 314.5 x 223.5 cm
Digital Models, Ellora Kailashanatha, 2014
Ellora Kailashanatha, 2014. Physical Model 1:100 scale. Mixed media, 150 x 180 x 140 cm
Infinisterra, Museu do Oriente, 2014. Black Room - exhibition view
Memories, 2014 - Museu do Oriente, Lisbon AV projection, 123 min. colour
Infinisterra - Architecture and Culture in Contemporary Asia, 118 pages, colour, author's edition, 50 numbered copies, 2017 / editorial design by Tomás Gouveia
Infinisterra is a multi-disciplinary arts and architecture studio founded by Sérgio Andrade and myself to which later Miguel Brito, Raúl Coelho, Hugo Branco, Nuno Pinheiro, and Luís Afflalo joined.
The starting point were two long research travels through Asia, undertaken with the objective of collecting data on contemporary Asian culture and architecture. The first journey was self-funded and resulted in a series of exhibitions and conferences and the second was funded by Fundação Oriente’s research scholarship, attributed in 2015 and resulted in a publication entitled Infinisterra - Architecture and Culture in Contemporary Asia.
The routes were:
I
Russia — Mongolia — China — Nepal — India — Sri Lanka
II
India — Nepal — China — Myanmar
We extensively registering the territories through which we passed. The media used were five: photography, film, sound capture, drawing and writing.
The results are dozens of thousands of pictures, hundreds of hours of film, many hours of audio and dozens of interviews to subjects of relevant interest in all countries. Our ambition was the creation of a global database, a pan-optic reflection that integrates Architecture, Arts, Sociology and Cultural Anthropology.
Infinisterra’s extension has to be understood in its totality - the ongoing investigation, the exhibitions and its online presence. On the web, more than 200 publications of totally original material can be found: photographs and videos are presented with research articles that reflect the investigation developed on the traversed territories.
The data capture was done in situ for creative transformation, establishing a dialogue dialogue between ancient and modern, therefore creating new knowledge and relations anchored in the complex contemporary reality.
The Infinisterra project was undoubtedly the foundation for the work I am producing today and one of the most significant moments of my practice.
“A portrait, a photograph, is a mechanism that allows us to travel through space and time, a sort of return to the places where we were happy.
The Infinisterra project is of another order (…)
The anthropological and photographic pilgrimage translates into three large format models, plans and photo panels, a composition of more than 800 pictures and an audio-visual installation, resulting from the recollection of thousands of pictures, hours of film and audio recordings and dozens of interviews.They used several technologies, such as video, audio and photographic manipulation, digital 3d modeling paired with artisanal sculpture and model building techniques.
A device that works on several senses and scales, and provides the particular epiphany as well as the universalist sense of the collective look – and still allows a margin to dream with places made of stone which promised a future of giants”.
- in VISÃO magazine, April 2015