Húmus, by Valter Vinagre (Avelãs de Caminho, 1954), is a retrospective look at the whole of his work spanning the period between 1988 and 2009. This journey through his several different books and photographic series includes approximately seventy printed works in different formats.

The guiding thread of this exhibition is a fragmented exploration of some of the most intimate strata of the imaginary of the human being. The choice of the images is not structured chronologically, but rather underlines the symbolic connection and the duality of meanings that exist in many of Valter Vinagre’s works. These are apparently documentary photographs which show all of their polysemic potential in holding a dialogue among themselves and in being subjected to the decontextualisation of the aim that was often at their origin. Starting from the contents that ambiguously emerge from within the different sections of the exhibition, the spectator has access to Vinagre’s reflections on our fantasies, the proximity of death, sex, memory or human relationships, a thematic spectrum here represented with a somber and disturbing character that reinforces its evocative capacities and its metaphysical deriving.

Organised by the Dom Luís I Foundation and is curated by Alejandre Castellote (Madrid).