Exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Centre Paris

Landscape, place, space, and architecture have established themselves as the predominant
themes in Edgar Martins' photographic imagery. Martins uses photography to develop a
philosophical, quasi-scientific investigation, examining various minimalist concepts of the
contemporary urban landscape.

A stage for the encounter with the everyday, his work calls to our attention that all is flow, all boundaries
are provisional, all space is permeable. It is the setting for spatial and temporal dislocation.

Moving between the factual and fictional, between the concrete and the metaphorical, the artist operates
within a landscape of uncertainty, within a culture landscape of permanent flux, transition and opposition.

An industrial city, a deserted freeway, a nighttime beach, a runway or an urban border, spaces are
primed with a sense of purpose yet they are marginal, fragmented and dispersed.

The work maintains a close and subtle dialogue with the traditions of topography and landscape photography, but we also find evidence of a link to the cinematic, the pictorial, and the sculptural. However, Edgar Martins' photography remains unique in its psychological nuances. These genres are subjected to an approach that is simultaneously descriptive, speculative, and reconfiguring, lying as it does between the documentation of spaces and objects that are suggestive and paradigmatic in social and visual terms, and the assumption of the image as a privileged form of aesthetic and artistic contemplation and (re)appreciation.

Edgar Martins at the Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Centre in Paris: This is Martins' first individual
show in France and his largest exhibition to date. Images from seven series have been selected, all
of which were produced over the last four years, including an unpublished body of work created in 2010:

A Metaphysical Survey of British Dwellings (2010), Reluctant Monoliths (2009), The Rate of Convergence
of Two Opposing System Trajectories (2008/09), When Light Casts no Shadow (2008), This is Not
a House (2008), Dwarf Exoplanets & Other Sophisms (2007) and The Accidental Theorist (2006/08).
Edgar Martins was born in Portugal in 1977 and grew up in Macau. He has been based for
many years in London, where he undertook his academic training and established his artistic career.
He is currently one of the most distinguished and prolific Portuguese photographers, having gained an
enormous amount of recognition from both the public and institutions in Portugal and abroad. Besides
having won various awards, his work is represented in several public and private collections.
www.edgarmartins.com

The Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Centre - the French delegation of the Portuguese foundation with the same name - seeks, through its multiple and varied activities, to participate in the major European debates and to make Portuguese culture known in France. The private house of its founder, Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955), has been home to exhibitions, concerts, and shows, as well as international conferences and symposiums for over 40 years. The Centre also houses the most important documental centre in Europe, dedicated to Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries, including over 90.000 works.

Image: Poppets, from the series A Metaphysical Survey of British Dwellings, 2010