It is the hand that speaks in the drawings called Corgo by Lisbon-based artist Maria Capelo. The work is a response to an existing landscape image, but equally the result of following a physical movement and relying on the memory of the hand while drawing. In Portuguese, corgo means a narrow path between hills. The Serra do Caldeirão in the south of Portugal embodies for Capelo a primeval landscape, a standard in her understanding of nature. From there she developed her interest in and knowledge of other landscapes in Europe, considering them as portraits of the earth, containing information about culture and changes. Capelo was recently featured in the exhibition All I Want, Portuguese Women Artists from 1900 to 2020 at the Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon. In 2018 the Municipal Galleries of Lisbon presented her solo exhibition The Things of the World are Rock. 

Text by Jurriaan Benschop