Nos Txôn
Marta Machado
Lifeless buildings, black and white, and a line of cypress trees. Are we in the vicinity of a cemetery? We have come from the earth and to the earth we will return. But the soil is dynamic. A final abode, but also a nest – also life. That's what the trees evoke; we are so used to finding them next to this last abode. Are these lifeless houses, where we live like the ones who have died? A neighbourhood and windows instead of graves? Instead of laundry drying in the wind, we have embroidery hanging from coffins?
Marta Machado is a Portuguese-Cape Verdean artist who lives and works in Braga, Portugal. A graduate of Architecture from the University of Minho, she also holds an MA in Photography from the School of Arts at the Catholic University of Porto. Her photographic work analyses the ambiguities of history and the so-called ‘official’ narratives of the Western world, focusing on themes of colonialism, identity and territory. Machado’s Beyond Solid Ground project was exhibited at Braga’s Encontros da Imagem festival, whilst her Nos Txôn series was presented at Lisbon’s Imago Gallery. Her academic research, meanwhile, has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals.