The aim of reporting another artistic activity is not conditioned by the illusory consideration of photography as an analogy of reality - a mimesis exempt from and neutral regarding any code. It is in itself autonomous, with its own order of considerations, affectations and choices, which articulate themselves from one photograph to the next. However, one mustn't lose sight of how a commission can limit a work's reception to set objectives, however broad these may be. The choice of a referent, theme or mode of presentation subordinated to a set function is in itself a form of conditioning, which may be all the more elaborate in the case of something seeking recognition and that merely begs an artistic glance to derive a sense of value. In this respect, Augusto Alves da Silva's choices ( ist, Uma Cidade Assim and CNB 200 1, amongst others) have been exact. The conditions laid down by the commission allowed him to work on the edge of what transcended it; on the deviation from it. It might even be asked whether his acceptance of specific commissions, beyond the implicit contractual conditions, doesn't underline an enjoyment in working on the limits of a theme, area or concept, in the intervening space between that proposed and that which utterly transcends it - an obstinate search for the permeability of boundaries. The hybrid nature of the contemporary world thus becomes susceptible to the objectification of the determinations of Augusto Alves da Silva's framings.

Pedro Lapa

Director of the Chiado Museum