'GL 574' | Carla Castiajo
Cycle: "The Politics of Images" curated by João Baeta

"When in 2012 I visited the Glyptothek museum, in Munich, I was dazzled with a torso that was exposed there. To express what this statue provoked when I observed and photographed it, I will appeal to the words of Jacques Rancière, from the book The Emancipated Spectator: “which has no face to express any feeling, no arms or legs to command or carry out any action”. This mutilated statue, this mythical form, is deprived from its world, it no longer transmits any kind of social grandeur. It does not express any feeling, it does not propose any action, however, the surface seems to “be looking” at the spectator from all sides. I “borrow” the photographs taken and the words to give form/body to this proposal I called GL 574,that corresponds to the inventory number of this statue. "
Carla Castiajo


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Carla Castiajo has a Degree in Art and Design, completed in Escola Superior de Arte e Design (ESAD), in Matosinhos, Portugal, 2003. In 2006, she completed a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Konstfack, Stockholm, Sweden. Concluded a PhD in 2016, from the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Estonia. The subject of her artistic research was Purity or Promiscuity? Exploring Hair as a Raw Material in Jewellery and Art. She taught at different Universities in different countries, such as the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan, the Oakham School in Oakham, United Kingdom, the College of Art and Design in Matosinhos, Portugal, the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Carla Castiajo works within the fields of art and jewellery. Over the last few years, she has often used human hair as a material. She uses the materials to communicate her ideas, as the materials have their own attributes and cultural and symbolic nature, incorporate meanings and can create and establish different dialogues. Her work has been exhibited internationally.