The project O Corpo em Mim (The Body in Me) was developed in partnership with the Backstage Dance School, in Braga, and its dancers Rosália Passinhas, Júlio Cerdeira, Inês Barroso and Isabel Almeida. O Corpo em Mim (The Body in Me) consists of a set of stereoscopic photographs depicting human sculptures physically and emotionally involved with geometric solids, called Sólidos Platónicos (Platonic Solids). These solids, also called regular polyhedra, are five in number and have their characteristics: the number of edges is the same on all faces and the angles also have the same number of edges. Plato established a relationship between these solids and the construction of the world, associating them with the elements of Nature, namely the Tetrahedron to Fire, the Hexahedron to Earth, the Octahedron to Air, the Icosahedron to Water and the Dodecahedron to the Universe.

The photographs presented are divided into two parts:

4 Photographic Anaglyph Phantograms, printed in small format, displayed horizontally on plinths, (50cm x 50cm x 50cm,) to be seen at 45 degrees, with red and cyan filter glasses, to provide the visitor, the possibility to touch and interact with the images.

7 Anaglyph stereoscopic photographs projected on the wall in large format (to be viewed with red and cyan filter glasses).

The size of the photographs presented aims to alter and deform the human scale, on the one hand reducing it to its insignificance concerning nature and the universe, explicit in the photographic puppets and, on the other hand, highlighting human interference in the elements of nature, represented in the photographs projected in large scale on the wall.

The number of photographs, seven for the projection and four printed, was thought of and chosen because the number seven symbolically represents totality, perfection, consciousness, spirituality and will, as well as renewal. It also represents the end of one cycle and the beginning of another.

The number four is mentioned to represent various symbologies: in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, it indicates the idea of universality, the 4 horsemen who bring the 4 major plagues and the 4 destroying angels who take place in the 4 corners of the earth; the teachings of Brahma, god of the Hindu trinary, are also divided into 4 parts – regions of space, the worlds, the lights and the senses; the 4 cardinal directions – north, south, east and west; the 4 seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter; the 4 phases of human life – childhood, youth, maturity and old age, and finally, the 4 elements of Nature – air, fire, water and earth.

The number eleven (all the photographs), according to numerology, represents the renewal of life cycles.

The two photographs without solids represent the rupture, the emptiness, and the absence of balance in the universe due to the inexistence of the four elements.

Human existence in the world must be thought out and adjusted to Nature so that the two can continue to remain in balance in the Universe.

Carla Gaspar