To describe the act of covering an object with a layer of something, we use the verb “to overlay”. The same word can be used as a noun to define that layer of something covering something else. And, in the computer world, the same concept refers to the process whereby a block of code or other data is transferred to the internal memory, replacing the contents that had originally been recorded.

Diana Policarpo presents her first solo exhibition at Galeria Lehmann+Silva, in Porto, under the title “Overlay”, and, as is customary in her work, she offers us an interesting and challenging exploration of a new territory, which is organised, in both space and time, precisely in the form of an “overlay”, in layers. On entering the gallery, we are invited to step inside a particular universe: a world where visual and sound material intersect, where language systems combine with one another, where different geographical and chronological dimensions interconnect, and where we might say that the perceptive conditions defined by the artist constrain but, at the same time, stimulate each and every aspect involved in the process of meaning production.

Inaugurating the presence of the written language in her work, she proposes the reading of a short Sci-Fi story (created in collaboration with Lorena Muñoz-Alonso), with the title “The Living Currency”(quoting Pierre Klossowski’s essay from 1970), which introduces into this new context some questions that already form a major part of Diana Policarpo’s research (...).

ANA ANACLETO

Excerpt of the exhibition text