ANDRÉ GUEDES
Lisbon, Portugal, 1976
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2011

Nuevo Libro de los Momentos Pares y de los Momentos Impares, 2011-2013
Pages 96 and 97; 150 and 151; 164 and 165
Collage. 42 × 60 cm each
Gift of the artist, 2013

Nuevo Libro de los Momentos Pares y de los Momentos Impares, 2011-2013
Pages 68 y 69; 86 y 87; 140 y 141; 148 y 149; 162 y 163; 166 y 167; 174 y 175
Collage 42 x 60 cm. ea.
Acquired in 2020

We generally understand the book as an object that contains a linear narrative unfolding page by page, as a continuum. However, our attention tends to focus more on the even pages – those on the right – than on the odd pages on the left. This assumption is the basis of André Guedes’ project, who, in order to question this implicit hierarchy, has placed odd and even pages together in pairs on a table, thereby establishing a new narrative through a continuum of images read from left to right. The use of different tones for the odd and even pages reminds the viewer of this structure.

Each pair of pages is composed of images taken from two different books: the left-hand page from Les Merveilles du XXème Siècle, a volume published in 1968 about the marvels of the twentieth century; the right-hand page from Great Disasters of the World, a book about major catastrophes published in 1981. By placing the disasters on the right, Guedes reflects on the hierarchy of information. Focusing on specific events, he assigns them a significance that highlights history as a clearly evocative construct.