João Nora

In the title Girl with white headphones looking at Louise Lawler in Kassel 2007, the artist defines the program of the painting we are looking at: he locates us in time, space, and context of the represented action (the observation of a painting at the documenta in Kassel, in 2007), he places out attention on the work of Louise Lawler (an artist that uses photography to analyze the conditions of reception of contemporary art) and, also, proposes a dialogue with the history of art, referring us to a work by Vermeer, in particular, the painting Girl With a Pearl Earring (1665-75). Let us start by focusing on this last reference: the Dutch painter is known for shrinking the world into small paintings, in opposition to the painting of João Nora in which the scale is almost real, and to the figure that, in relation to the one painted by Vermeer, is rotated revealing only her profile – the direction of the gaze is altered; instead of looking at the viewer the look is directed towards a work of art. The reference to the work by Louise Lawler refers to this shift of the gaze: her practice consist in the analysis of the gaze on works of art (by other artists) and of its presentation in contexts form which the common public is excluded (photographs of works installed in the houses of collectors, works stored in the archive of galleries, the process of wrapping works of art, etc.). It is also the observation of the work of art that is represented in this canvas; placing the viewer of the painting Girl with white headphones looking at Louise Lawler in Kassel 2007 in a mise en abyme, triggering the questioning about the reception of contemporary art – a negotiation that includes the discussion of ideas, the movement between several times, and the availability of the gaze.