FELIPE CAMA - COLLECTION: OTHER APPROACHES VOL.III – BY BRUNO MORESCHI
Pages 648 and 649 (That's How I Was Taught series) • 2012
Framed book, oil on canvas • 12.4 x 18.3 in (book), 4.5 x 4.5 in; 4.5 x 6.9 in; 3.15 x 4.5 in; 2.2 x 2.75 in; 3.35 x 2.35 in; 1.8 x 4.5 in
Contemporary Art Museum USP Collection • Donated by Iguatemi São Paulo Mall
The photographic image above is that of an art work that discusses the photography of the artistic object. Pages 648 and 649, from the “That’s How I Was Taught” series, by Felipe Cama, reproduces in oil paint the images of works that appear in art books - in this case, L’Arte Moderna, by the Italian critic Giulio Carlo Argan. Now, the photograph of Cama's work is in this publication that you have in hand. And at the moment you see it, it passes by same transformations as the art object created by Cama discusses.
The image above is no longer Cama’s book, small canvases and glass box. It is a photograph. From the point of view of some photographer with a much greater power than the diminutive letters that make up his name in this book’s credits suggest - after all, he is the true author of the image seen here. As if it weren't enough, in addition to the click, the image is also printing, color, paper texture, reduced or enlarged sizes dictated by the graphic design of the books - Argan’s and this one.
Cama's work, the photograph of Cama's work, the photographic reproduction of Cama's work and the writing about Cama's work, on the photograph of Cama's work and on the reproduction of the photograph Cama's work result in this labyrinthine movement that would make Jorge Luis Borges proud. At times we forget, other times we consciously ignore, in order to move on, but all this confusion makes clear that Art History is largely the History of the photography of the work of art. Not by chance, no one truly cares that the Duchamp's Fountain was destroyed. Before its disappearance, it was photographed. We have the record. And it is through these records and the French artist’s authorized replicas that we study the art work that no longer exists. Or does it exist? Isn't the art work just its images?
In his work, which unfortunately we will never be able to see in full, Cama was ingenious to realize that within the impossibility of seeing a work of art there is a region that is not deprivation, but affirmation. To redo some of the possible images of works is to reiterate the impossibility to actually see it. The procedure has intriguing consequences. And it culminates in affirming that the work above is far from Felipe Cama’s work discussed in this text.
Originally published on the e-book Acervo: Outras Abordagens Vol. III - MAC USP - Org. Tadeu Chiarelli, EDUSP publishing, 2015.