Mário
Pires
Bleak
City
The Exhibition
I am deeply rooted in my hometown of Lisbon. I cannot imagine living anywhere else. This city has existed for at least a thousand years before the common calendar. Like everything, cities change. Each change brings another layer of destruction to the natural world.
As we move further and further away from our primordial connection to the soil, we become closer and closer to the synthetic material we create, and less and less human in the process.
When I was born, the place where I lived was mostly covered with agricultural land that could be traced back almost to the time of the Roman occupation. But then, little by little, farms were sold and buildings began to appear and spread. In just 50 years, the landscape has changed dramatically.
Bleak City was born out of my solitary walks around the city and my great love for Japanese photography of the 60s and 70s and its masters. These legendary photographers pushed the boundaries of what photography could be and showed us how their visual language could break stereotypes and feel alive and urgent.
I decided that paying homage to that aesthetic was the best way to show how cities have become zombie-like creatures that help suck the life out of their inhabitants.
These photographs are my way of showing that, unless citizens rethink the way cities are built and developed, we are heading for a very grim future.
— Mário Pires
The Publication
Anagramsº3 – Bleak City
Images & Text by Mário Pires
Curation & Layout by Anne Murayama
Since we left the caves and began building shelters to house ourselves and our way of life, we have continuously modified our environment.
In the last three centuries, these modifications have been so dramatic that we fear for our future as a species.
Cities are evolving organisms, with traces of every living creature that once inhabited them still present.
Buildings and roads are subject to the transitory whims of those who believe they are in charge.
Each new building is slowly invaded by the memories of what was there before, connecting it to its lineage.
Unfortunately, the majority of these structures do not honour their surroundings and slowly degrade into soulless ghost buildings.
However, beneath the soil, renewal is waiting and never fades away.
Now Available
The Artist
Mário Pires
Born in 1960 in Lisbon. Works and lives in Lisbon. Started capturing light in 1984.
Believes that rust never sleeps and that we should keep adapting, learning, and evolving.
Believes in the saving power of beauty.
Believes that goddesses, muses, and nymphs exist to guide the artist in finding a way out of the chaos of his internal labyrinth.
Believes that artists should not be defined by the tools they use, but by their work and actions.
Believes the artist’s creative fire is only kept alive when they immerse fearlessly into their unconscious.
Works in photography, both digital and analog, video, calligraphy, and music.
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