LINGUA PORTUGUESA
Installation by Åsa Lie. 1991, Gallery La Prima Materia, Amsterdam, NL. Solo. Based on a card and an undeveloped roll of b/w photos taken by Jadran Sturm (which he wanted to throw away) but gave to Åsa in 1990.
Conquistadores on their way to fulfil the mission over the sea.
Supported and blessed by their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters.
17th century space, Amsterdam.
Strips of sound tape on one side of the entrance. A few leaves on the floor.
Low rustling from the leaves and tapestrips caused by a slight wind.
Daylight. Fresh air. Basin. Heat. Gas oven with burning fire. 3 wooden pieces.
Newspaper clipping, photograph of woman, (10cm x 15cm).
Red wall painting, (31cm x55cm).
Colour photograph, (58cm x 39cm). Men participating in a feast in the village Sete Cidades, Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal. Gift. The photo was taken by a villager.
6 black and white pictures, (28cm x 39cm). Mixed technique of photography and photocopy work process. All 6 Madonnas are from the S. Domingos church in Lisbon, Portugal. There was a fire inside on the 13th of August 1959 and the restoration was not yet completed when the Madonnas were photographed in 1990.
See the below excerpt from a talk between Simon Delobel (art historian, curator & director Kiosk Ghent) and Åsa Lie.
6 black and white pictures, (28cm x 39cm). Mixed technique of photography and photocopy work process.
6 black and white pictures, (28cm x 39cm). Mixed technique of photography and photocopy work process.
6 black and white pictures, (28cm x 39cm). Mixed technique of photography and photocopy work process.
Black and white pictures (28cm x 39cm) by Åsa Lie, 1991. Mixed technique of photography and photocopy work process. All 6 Madonnas are from the S. Domingos church in Lisbon, Portugal.
All 6 madonnas are from the S. Domingos church in Lisbon, Portugal. There was a fire inside on the 13th of August 1959, and the restoration was not yet completed when the madonnas were photographed in 1990.
All 6 madonnas are from the S. Domingos church in Lisbon, Portugal. There was a fire inside on the 13th of August 1959, and the restoration was not yet completed when the madonnas were photographed in 1990.
All 6 madonnas are from the S. Domingos church in Lisbon, Portugal. There was a fire inside on the 13th of August 1959, and the restoration was not yet completed when the madonnas were photographed in 1990.
The origional photographs taken by Jadran Sturm in Lisbon, 1990
SIMON DELOBEL (ART HISTORIAN, CURATOR & DIRECTOR KIOSK GHENT) AND ÅSA LIE. BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 3rd 2025
Simon Delobel: Do you feel that one of the missions of your art—if there is a mission or a goal at all—was to make people aware of existing structures in which they were, in a way, imprisoned? To heighten their consciousness of what was happening? Or was it more about documenting it? For example, this is an amazing document of a particular moment in time.
Åsa Lie: Behind beauty there is often horror. Or there is a connection, beauty and horror, or terror. As in Lingua Portuguesa, it's about beauty but also bloodshed and blindness. This is a transition piece, my work, but Jadran contributed with the material it’s based upon. He was in Portugal at the very beginning of our relationship to meet a woman. They had been in love before we met and both wondered if it was really over, but everything went to hell, they didn’t get along. He was really pissed off when he came back. So, he said: "Here, I took some photos", and put three film rolls in my hand... "This goes to the bin, or you can do something with it if you want."
I was curious, developed the film rolls and had a look at the negatives. It was photos from Lisboa and the Azores. Somewhere among all the images, I zoomed in on the Madonnas (from the Igreja de São Domingos, Lisboa) and their faces. I started working and changed them completely. Blew them up, went back and forth between the copy machine and the lab, from negatives to positives and back. I was also interested in the little colour photo Jadran gave me from a feast on the Azores. It was taken by a villager and given to Jadran. It was scanned and printed much larger. 7 images out of 109 had been chosen and ended up in my installation in Amsterdam. I decided to use the backyard shed of the gallery instead of the gallery space. It was full of old stuff and trash which I threw out. There was a gas oven and a basin and some details attached to or on the walls. They became a part of the installation. For example here you can see an old newspaper clip glued on the wall and a piece of wood. That became a perfect place for one of the Madonnas.
For the invitation card I used a photo of Dicionário da Lingua Portuguesa from which the title originates.
And a text, a kind of summary of my thoughts: Conquistadores on their way to fulfill the mission over the sea, supported and blessed by their wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters.
What is colonization, or what is war? We're all in it. We're all part of it.
These different women in the same church, represented through the different Madonnas, who have different ages, with children or not. It's the queen, the wife, the nun, the mother, the sister, the daughter. Idols, just like we have today, e.g. in magazines with celebrities - if you look in fashion magazines – like, Kate Moss, et cetera. For both men and women this was connected to religion and ideology, having something to look up to. Women are not innocent, when it comes to colonization. But some still say: “Women don't do that. Women aren’t brutal. Women don't fight; they don't want to kill.” It's not true. Behind these idealised women, the Madonnas, in a beautiful church, there is a story of horror, because it's built with the money from what the conquistadors took home with the help of missionaries and so on…
Åsa Lie with Simon Delobel in the Jadran Sturm & Åsa Lie Private Foundation archive, February 2025