Delphos 2020
How does one address a question to an image? How can a photographic image predict the future?
Inspired by the work of the late Portuguese poet E. M. Melo e Castro (1932–2020), this project explores the oracular nature of the photographic medium. Through experimental interventions with images and texts, it proposes an interpretation of the poem “Delfos 2020” (1980) by E. M. Melo e Castro. The original poem takes the form of an oversized wooden triptych meant to be hung on a wall, and its reading depends on three obscure calculation settings that must be employed in a combinatorial way to decipher (or invent) possible interpretations.
Drawing upon these ideas, my project—conceived as an installation—is based on the materiality of photography to explore its speculative possibilities. The underlying idea is to unleash the potential of photographic images to stimulate imagined futures, as an oracle enabling socio-cultural transformations.
Thus, the photographs taken at the sanctuary of Delphi (Greece) serve as the material basis for crossword-like puzzles and temporal markers that invite a speculative exercise. At the center of the installation stands the representation of the Pythia, the priestess responsible for delivering prophecies of the future at Apollo’s temple in Delphi. The message she brings is written in an unknown language, inviting the viewer to decipher it through the other images taken in the same place. In this sense, deciphering the oracle is nothing more than inventing (and visualizing) a future.
Bio
Alfredo Brant (Brazil–Italy, 1983) is a photographer, artist, and researcher at the Centre for Communication and Culture Studies, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. His doctoral research explored knowledge production through photographic practices and decolonial approaches in artistic and educational contexts.
Grounded in visual culture, his work investigates affect and the politics of images, as well as the interplay between words and photography. Combining documentary and portraiture, he constructs visual narratives that question modes of seeing and representation.
After earning a degree in Journalism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil, 2005), he studied Photography and Contemporary Art at Université Paris 8 (BA, 2007; MA, 2010) and attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna as an Erasmus student. His work has been exhibited in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Brazil, and he has developed artistic projects in Canada, India, and France.
He has taught at the International Institute of Photography (São Paulo), the Senior University of Alcântara (Lisbon), and Atelier de Lisboa. Based in Lisbon since 2019, Brant continues to develop authorial projects and visual literacy workshops derived from his doctoral research
Institution(ing)s is a medium-scale collaboration project co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.