WHAT IS AT THE ORIGIN OF OUR ASSOCIATION?
CHI is the result of lengthy research carried out by
Lucília Barata, one of our founder members. That research gave continuity to
research that had already been started by the Portuguese artists Almada
Negreiros and Lima de Freitas into an apparently forgotten science, which
provided the structural basis for many civilizations of the past.
For Almada Negreiros everything began with the so
called “S. Vicente de Fora Panels”, attributed to Nuno Gonçalves, and with his
decision to go, through them, towards the Canon.
«Going towards a canon» - he said in an interview
published in the newspaper “Diário de Notícias” in 1960- «is the fundamental
reason for all my work».
On this subject Lima de Freitas would later write:
«What Almada did was to open the eyes of those who were interested in the
subject to the fact that the so-called Nuno Gonçalves panels, being deeply
Portuguese, were also part of a European and universal tradition of marvellous
wisdom and antiquity, which provided the canonical foundations for the great
sacred art of multiple civilizations». And not only Art, but also Science and
Religion.
Unfortunately, Almada Negreiros did not fulfil his
dream. He became lost in a labyrinth of confusing drawings, without having
found what he was looking for- the sacred canon of cosmology which can
explain the laws that rule all universal phenomena, including Art.
Pormenor
do painel “Começar” (Almada Negreiros)
Detail from the panel “Beginning”,
Almada Negreiros.
Lima de Freitas followed in the footsteps of Almada
and also made an incursion into symbolic geometry, with a deep conviction that
the Canon was the key to all mysteries. But, once again, the dream did not come
true. That is, Lima de Freitas did not find that key.
Farol de Saturno (Lima de Freitas)
“Saturn’s Lighthouse
(Promontorium Sacrum)”, Lima de Freitas.
Fortunately,
Lucília had more luck. Guided by intuition and impelled by an unbreakable
faith, after an extraordinarily labyrinthine route, she at last achieved the
simplicity she was aiming for. And this would lead her to the very essence of
the Canon itself.
How Canon begins… (Lucília)
From then on, it was only a question of applying it to
different areas of knowledge, and verifying if that was in fact, from a
symbolic point of view, the common denominator of them all. As one might
expect, the conclusion was affirmative so she decided to gather together all
the scattered parts of her work, that is the drawings and geometrical models
she had made over the years to defend her thesis, and she decided to make it
public by holding some exhibitions in different places in Portugal. She was
always aware, however, that the result of her research was but the beginning of
a tangled ball of thread that many others would need to help to unravel.