Constança Arouca
Artist and anthropologist Constança Arouca graduated from Ar.Co (Lisbon) in 2014. Since 2016 she has developed her artwork in the fields of drawing, printmaking, and moving images while conducting series of research in visual culture.
While her favorite medium until then had been drawing and oil painting, Constança undertook a long period of experimentation during her studies at Ar.Co. She began frequently visiting the school´s Print Department and discovered in printing techniques an investment, a relation to time, a rhythm comparable to those she was used to and appreciated with oil painting. It is for the same reasons the artist simultaneously adopted the video medium.
Constança then decided to dig deeper into printmaking background and History and after a new course of studies, she graduated in 2016 from Nova University’s Master Program of Anthropology – Visual Cultures. Parallel to her artistic practice, she began two lines of printmaking research in Lisbon: between 2016 and 2017, she systematized the inventory of Printmaking Matrices at the National Museum of Ancient Art and between 2017 and 2020 she completed the Study of the Vietnamese Prints and Posters from the Kwok On Collection, at the Orient Museum.
This interdisciplinary practice gives shape to unique pieces combining meticulousness and spontaneity. Furthermore, her work offers an alternative way to render under various forms the result of her researches. Therefore, they are simultaneously narratives and embodiments of knowledge.
The series “Pick a Prime” and “Meia Cana Chanfrada” are the incarnation of Constança´s long-time fascination for engraving tools. While “Pick a Prime” take its origin from the discovery of curious chisels marks she found on the back of some plates during her investigations, “Meia Cana Chanfrada” led her to the door of the chisellers of the conservation and restoration workshops of the Museum of Decorative Arts, in Lisbon. She then spent one year in residency with them discovering their tools, techniques, and rhythm of practice.
Currently, Constança is an Anthropology PhD student in the program jointly organized by ISCTE IUL and NOVA FCSH.
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