A notebook is a set or collection of several folded sheets of paper, sewn together in the form of a book. A trace is the vestige, sign, or indication of an event; an imprint is the mark of our weight upon a surface, or a lasting impression in our mind.

Within the framework of Esquinçar superfícies (“Tearing Surfaces”), the curatorial and exhibition project developed at Sala d’Art Jove throughout 2023, the idea of creating a quadern de rastres (“notebook of traces”) emerged as a graphic and visual methodology through which the artists could pour everything surrounding their projects: extensions of thought, processes of ideation and creation, words, images, materials, and diverse materialities. It became another physical space to gather elements and re-signify the singularity of each project within the plurality of curatorial work.

The artists received sheets with different textures, formats, and colors; a printed page containing the statement of their artistic projects; fragments of a diary; and a notebook filled with blank pages. Their task: to intervene in these diverse materials, always bearing in mind the processual nature of their creations. Thus, they wrote and drew their thoughts; underlined questions and highlighted discoveries; pasted reference images and post-its with handwritten reflections; handeled different papers, scraps, and dry leaves; made collages; and transformed the notebooks into spaces for conceptualization and artistic experimentation.

Traces are a kind of touch. And to touch, even when it does not touch, is the essence of affection, a sensitive force that, at the point of friction, of caress, of pulsation, and also of reception, can tear through the surfaces of perception and alter the physical state of matter, opening it to a different possibility of contact.

In the pages of this publication, we gather the clues, walk among footprints, and glimpse the traces that remain of a long and ephemeral year of work.

Renan Camilo
Curator of Sala d’Art Jove 2023