Ana Pérez-Quiroga shows, for the first time, her body of work produced, throughout almost a decade, in textile Convento de Cristo, in Tomar, will receive between 18th April and 21st June, the exhibition "Wishing it would rain" by Ana Pérez-Quiroga. This exhibition is part of the cycle of Contemporary Art Exhibitions - co-produced by Project Travessa da Ermida, in Belém, and by Convento de Cristo, in Tomar -aiming to bring about to this great Portuguese monument. Throughout almost a decade, Ana Pérez-Quiroga has been establishing a solid body of work which highlights textile. In this exhibition the artist gathers, for the first time, more than a dozen works exploring the sensitive and symbolic visual game, on an open dialogue with Convento de Cristo. In “Wishing it would rain” the artist makes use of the textile medium to communicate with the time universe of this monuments exploring drapery, curtains, banners, flags, carpets or overlays, used at that same time. Her interest is to approach this space's domestic side and its natural environment, whose inhospitable walls, would become cosier if the inclusion of this draperies and other textiles were taken in consideration. These materials would fulfil not only a functional side, associated to comfort, but also a symbolic , and narrative part, taking in consideration that most of them represent battle, hunting, mythological or religious scenarios. It doesn't matter how many books we read about this time we keep on simultaneously creating a fantasy and inserting it in the construction of an image which not always matches reality. My goal with this exhibition is to dialogue not only with what we really have knowledge of but also with what we can represent. About her fascination for textile, the artist explains: "The first time I chose textile to work with, in a considered way, was in an installation I created for the space "Casa d'Os Dias da Água", in 2003. In here I've presented a work with 14 white cloths and 14 double faced satin ones (black outwards and red inwards), with a serigraph calendar. At this point I became aware of textile being able to create architectures and fusions between interior and exterior, between what's inside and what's outside.". About the artist Born in 1960, in Coimbra, Portugal. Lives and works between Lisbon and Shanghai. Graduated in Sculpture by FBAUL - College of Fine Arts University of Lisbon, she also made other courses: Advanced Visual Arts Course at Ar.Co and a Master in Visual Arts and Inter-media at the Universidade de Évora, and attends the PhD course in Arts from the University of Coimbra. Doctoral research fellow of the Foundation for Science and Technology - FCT. She works mainly with installation and photography and her themes go from the institutional critic to a more personal universe of references. She has been presenting her artistic work on a regular basis since 1999, in significant institutional group shows such as Disseminações, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal (2001), Comer o no Comer, Salamanca Art Centre, Spain (2002), Where Are You From? Contemporary Art from Portugal, Grinnell, Iowa, USA (2008), MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) - Shanghai - Made in Shanghai (2008) Museu do Chiado / MNAC - Arte Portuguesa do Século XX 1960 - 2010 (2012) and the Palace of the Dukes, Guimarães – O assalto ao Castelo em 3 atos (2012). And the solo exhibitions at the Museum of Chiado / National Museum of Contemporary art - Breviary of Everyday Life # 2 (1999), at the National Museum of Ancient Art - Still Life (2004), the Museum Nogueira da Silva Braga - From:, To:, Via : (2012) and the Museum of Neo-Realism, Vila Franca de Xira – Obra sem senão (2012). Her work is represented in important collections: Isabel Vaz Lopes (on deposit at Museu do Chiado / MNAC), the CGD Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Mayor of Lisbon and the Museum of Neo-Realism. Press Info: Sérgio Parreira | sergio-parreira@clix.pt | tel.: 966 647 001 Convento de Cristo 2300 Tomar T: +351 249 313 481 | E: geral@ccristo.dgpc.pt www.conventodecristo.pt OPENING 9h00 - 17h30 (from the june month it starts closing at 18h30) |It closes Easter Sunday and 1st of May ORGANIZATION Direção Geral do Património Cultural| Convento de Cristo |Project Travessa da Ermida Support: Companhia de Seguros Lusitânia | Câmara Municipal de Tomar |Instituto Politécnico de Tomar |Cafetaria do Castelo
