Maria Idília Martins | Portugal

Marilídia Martins is a Portuguese born visual artist living in Venezuela, where she studied and presently develops her work. Having recently obtained a degree in fine arts (sculpture), she has more than 20 years of studies and collective exhibitions of photography, sculpture, installation and pottery. With her last individual exhibition, the site-specific installation “Espacio Vivido” (“Lived Space”) that took place in the Center for Latin-American Studies of Caracas and that was based on the use of perceptual elements in the sculptural space, the artist aimed to put in discussion the ways to see, convoking the look as a construction of new languages, from structures that seem to be run out in a daily transiting.

Project: Zapatos de Mi pueblo (“Shoes of My village”)
Category: Visual Arts, Installation
Period: September 2007
Event: Art Residency (Fronte[i]ras 07 Meeting)

The Greek God Hermes, the protector of limits and of travelers who crossed those limits, is a god with shoes, because he has a legitimate possession of the land he stays in.

In the land of Islam, the foreigner must cross bare-footed the entrance of his host’s house, showing with that gesture, that he doesn’t have any thought of vindication nor any property right to claim. Likewise, one should enter bare-footed in sacred places, because the mosque’s ground doesn’t belong to mankind.

The shoe is the symbol of the traveler. That errant poet who follows a dream, leaving his own footsteps behind, which belong to a time that will never return.

I proposed an investigation about the shoes people wear, asking them to participate in the project. These shoes came from several origins (abandoned or in use, children and adult shoes, different types of shoes and shoes wear by owners of several socio-economical backgrounds) from the several rural communities. Those shoes were put inside a suitcase and moved to a specific public place and were installed according to several dispositions, each one visually connected to their owner’s daily activities: speaking, working, playing, waiting for the bus, etc.

Project's photo selection (art residency, public presentations and exhibition):

Photos by Maria Idília Martins and Binaural