Pénélope

For his work Penelope, Francisco used as a model a work by António Soares dos Reis (1847–1889), a Portuguese Neoclassical sculptor known for his allegorical statuettes, which he portrayed in ancient dress. The latter’s grave is decorated with his work Saudade,, a universal figure of melancholy that is commonly reproduced for use in graveyards. Francisco associated this sculpture with the archetypal representation of Penelope, who has always been shown as a bowed figure.

The architecture of her body is a series of bends: she stands in the contrapposto pose with one arm folded against her chest, supporting the elbow of the other arm, which in turn supports her tilted head. He figure of Penelope was reduced to no more than her physical conformation. Paradoxically, as material is removed from the model, the altered figure appears to become veiled, or to be shrouded in a kind of burial cloth. This new “formless” figure could be viewed as a reference to the ruse Penelope developed to delay the choice of a suitor, in which she unpicked at night the burial shroud she wove for Laertes during the day, but also as the representation of a creative impulse that contains its own destruction.



Francisco Tropa was born in 1968 and works and lives in Lisbon. Time, tales and formal aesthetics are the main elements of his work. The artist links stories together, retelling mythologies, technologies, science and societies. Tropa uses several media – sculpture, drawing, performance, engraving, installation, photography and film — to convey a series of reflections catalysed by the different traditions of sculpture and science. His installations abound in precise and precious objects, geometric and elaborate forms, delicate prototypes and complex machines. His pieces are most clearly underpinned by the notion of time. Time is also decisive in the studio work by the artist, who sometimes develops his projects over several years.