PREDADOR PERDIDO
(LOST PREDATOR)

A Montanha
Lisbon, November 2018
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The predator roams through the jungle. He is lost because he does not know where he is going, but he is looking for something.
Something in particular? Everything?Does he even know? In any case, thanks to his intuition, he is always ready. He passes other beings along the way, but are they all potential prey? When does the predator attack? Whenever he needs to, or does he have a choice? 
And do these other beings say something about the predator? The fact of his seeing them or choosing to attack them or not.
​Do they reflect something about the predator? By hunting to feed himself, is the predator not, essentially, looking for himself? 

At A Montanha Bernardo Simões Correia presents a series of drawings, sculptures and videos that form current and contiguous points along the trail he has been treading. As already mentioned by other commentators in previous exhibitions, Simões Correia feeds on a wide variety of cultures (visual and not only),
which he references in his work with breezy miscegenation, he himself acting as a predator. Disparate elements come together to breed new entities, new beings, banal objects gain relevance, becoming modest and unstable monuments to themselves, and reveal the gaze of the artist,
which is always switched on and aware, like that of a predator in the jungle. Always ready for any opportunity, any rustling, any flashing movement seen out of the corner of his eye, any sign. Sign that he and the world exist and are watching one another.

It seems that the jungle is at the mercy of this artist, but, in fact, he cannot live without it. He depends on it, he is an integral part of this ecosystem. It could be said that this nature of the artist as predator reflects Simões Correia’s faith, in terms of the attention and interest he gives the world, devouring everything,
absorbing and integrating the world around him, worshipping with the body.

The predator artist gives himself up to his faith and to the world, without projecting into the future, and therefore he is lost. Projections come through in the works, but, in addition to this multiplicity of references and to this fluidity, do the works project anything else?
Perhaps that, in amongst the artist’s multiple selves there is a certain wildness, and, for this reason, or because of his faith, the predator artist never fears.

Eva Oddo

photo credits: Photodocumenta

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