As part of the European Month of Photography in Luxembourg (Emoplux), Paulo Lobo, a photographer of Portuguese origin, is exhibiting a selection of his work until July 7, 2023 at the Portuguese Cultural Center Camões.
“These images reflect the question of what it means to be Portuguese in Luxembourg, what does that meanThis year’s theme for Photography Month is identification, A theme at the heart of the work of Paulo Lobo whose exhibition The Portuguese in Luxembourg puts him in the spotlight.
His reflection on identity, Paolo Lobo breaks it down Three photographic series Displayed at Camões Centre. “I’ve been thinking about identity for 30 years, what it’s like to be PortugueseBrowsing through these three series, the visitor is immersed in the artist’s questioning. The answers? Paolo Lupo offers none, he admits that they do not exist.These are open questions“.
Arrived so young in Luxembourg, the photographer has already emphasized his connection to his country of origin and country of adoption in an episode of Portuguese from Luxembourg:”I’m between the two. I wouldn’t say either, I’m both“.
Paulo Lobo has been asking himself these questions of identity for a long time, and he deepens them through his art, whether through street photography or portraits of Portuguese people during traditional cultural events. He probes, observes, and immortalizes through his lens, always driven by the desire to put his finger on what really makes a person, their identity, and their soul:But what is the soul? What is the human soul? Is it just her face without artifice, or does her dress matter, too? The soul is what is deeperThese reflections are tangible during his exhibition, which he named “Alma Pintada”, I painted the soul.
In the first series of the exhibition, “O sol chama por mim” (The sun is calling me), Paulo Lobo presented portraits of Portuguese people, taken on the spot, on the streets of Diverdange and Esch on party or meeting occasions. This footage was immortalized by Paolo during the 2000s, then searched for.”To document the manifestations of the Portuguese identity in the urban space of Luxembourg.“He depicts people of Portuguese descent on the streets, in the cafés, always spontaneously and with a desire to copy the Portuguese spirit. “They recreate a kind of little Portugal, Finally they reconfigured their identity in this way“.
The second series of photos, “Longe daqui” (Far From Here), presents posed photos taken by the photographer with the “Grupo etnográfico do Alto Minho” cultural group. Kind of A dialogue between two cultures, where traditional Portuguese clothes and the places of the Luxembourg marina face each other. Finally, like the confrontation between tradition and the land of welcome, the confrontation that “With time it will fade a bit, already today many Portuguese who were born here do not conform to the popular clichés that I have represented herePaolo thought.
In a third series, the photographer strives to show what is hidden behind the mask worn in society, the photographs “Strip the individual of his tricks“. Black and white, in the film, in close-up, frees the spectator from all distraction, only the face matters, and with it, above all, the look.
These reflections on identity have an important place in the life of the photographer from Baixa da Banheira, as he confided to us during his interview in Portuguese from Luxembourg:”There’s always this nostalgia for the country, this famous fado, this sadness, it’s always there, it’s part of me.“
