Pedro Barateiro

Pedro Barateiro's work is developed around questions related to the conceptualisation of space (museological, exhibition, public) and the artist's intervening role.
Drawing has formed the basis of his work for several years, not as a closed practise, but as the basis for working in various artistic fields. In this manner, his work has been transformed into an action or performance drawing, since it always implies a physical act of intervention in a non-neutral space (photography, video, gallery space). This principle is also found in the present work - oil painting on a photographic print.
Monumento reflects the idea of the contemporary ruin, its value as an architectural model and conjures up the possibility of its transformation into a monument. In this manner, Barateiro confronts the ideals of the classic monuments with notions of the fragility and degradation of contemporary urbanity, questioning the assumptions and prejudices associated to the social recognition of monuments and rums.
On transforming one of the city's degraded and abandoned spaces, Barateiro establishes - by means of a utopian architectural intervention and conceptual philosophical exercise - the possibility of a new existence, a new interpretation, a new fluidity that lies in opposition to crystallisation.