Apontar
Apontar
The verb apontar, in portuguese, is commonly associated with using one's finger to indicate a direction, make a written note, or sharpen a pencil or other object. Sometimes, it is even considered as bad behaviour towards someone. To this polysemy, I wish to add a new meaning—not to re-signify but, perhaps, to co-signify—which is understood in relation to the aim of the Institution(ing)s project and the intention of the session with Cindy Sissokho on 31st of October 2025, in which I was delighted to participate.
In this regard, and also because my practice is mainly curatorial, I cannot help but relate the proposed word to the idea of a bridge (ponte, pt). A bridge connects two or more places, allowing a free and organic flow between the most varied fields of knowledge that exist. This is, I would say, an essential vitamin in the body of curatorship, uniting and interconnecting with different fields and, above all, co-producing knowledge to facilitate relational practices. Recall Édouard Glissant, in his archipelic thinking and the idea of creolization.
Thus, apontar here refers to building a bridge to establish the aforementioned type of practice while, in fact, pointing in the direction one wishes to go. Somewhere and wherever necessary, whether for any point on our timeless compass, the act of pointing will continue, constantly, inherent to us and organic like the movement of a flag in the wind, nomadic and positioning us in this world.
Bio
Tomás Saraiva (b. 2002, Lisbon, Portugal) holds a degree in Art and Heritage Sciences from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Curatorial Studies at the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra. His work focuses on the intersectional possibility between the practice of visual arts and the practice of curating and mediation through an exploration of relationship mechanisms and their consequence on the apparatus of thought-action. He has been simultaneously organising and participating in various exhibitions at national and international level.
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.