Pedro Valdez Cardoso

A bachelor’s degree from Escuela Superior de Teatro y Cine Amadora of Lisbon, and a graduate degree in theatrical studies by the Facultad de Letras de la Universidad of Lisbon, specialized in art work creations for entertainment, Valdez Cardoso also studied visual arts at the Escuela de Artes Visuales Maumaus of Lisbon. The work of Pedro Valdez Cardoso, in the words of one of the collaborators of the catalogue, João Pinharanda, owes its existence to what already exists. His sculpture is developed through the collage (association/aggregation) of autonomous elements (as in the Hellenistic sculpture, Baroque and Art Nouveau) and/or the allocation of shapes found (as in Dada and surrealism) instead of modelling soft paste or carving blocks of hard material in ‘copies’ of whole figures. His work does not exist as an accumulation or sum of identical items that will eventually lead to a faithful or deformed model of an object or a decorative digression. His sculpture is the simulation of the assemblement of objects/sets, avoiding the changes in scale, but not the absurd side, Neo-Dadaista, relations between its elements. “This enormous collection of objects (Pedro Valdez is an extremely prolific artist) explores themes of contemporary everyday life, the history of art and social thought, as well as literary fiction, arranged as a visual universe in expansion, a sort of list of possibilities for a parallel narrative reality of a completely scenic and theatrical nature, where most of these objects might be used as stage props. As for the actors, they are the product of our imagination, or ourselves, as the titles of the pieces, give us clues about the action on stage: generally, the body and sexuality, life and survival, will and death, specifically, the power and counter-power in the great theatre of the world that was created by the influence of the West on the rest of the world and on itself through capitalism, different colonialisms, militarism, the breakdown of social ties, homophobia and ecological disasters…This exhibition starts being ironic since the overall title, developing his vocation for criticism at each and every one of its elements, as well as the relationship that may arise between them. In the end, we understand the basic concepts of Pedro Valdez Cardoso <>. It makes us aware that the reality we are dealing with precedes us, here as an artist; he uses the experiences accumulated outside and before himself as a starting point. Therefore, the resources of his method (object and words, images and ideas) are, as we have already seen, found in reality, appropriated from reality and finally returned to reality. This process of appointment/deformation, in its sequence and organization, has no need of dominant or deductive logic, rational or idealist. The artist uses objects and materials, associated with ideas. Pre-existing elements, shaping new objects; he defines his ideas by readjusting out of reality. By sequencing these objects and ideas, he provides an expansive energy and defines the new paths of association and connection, fluctuations, pluralities, subjective flows that no method can contain.”1 The exhibition, resulting from an agreement of collaboration between the IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno) and Fundación Cultural Luis I de Cascáis, Portugal, and curated by its Representative Director, Salvato Telles de Menezes, presents eleven works primarily made over the past two years. The online catalog of the exhibition features texts of the curator, Salvato Telles de Menezes; the art critic, João Pinharanda and the Director of the IVAM, Consuelo Císcar.   1. Pinharanda, Joao: “El Discurso del Método de Pedro Valdez Cardoso” in Pedro Valdez Cardoso, El Discurso del Método, IVAM, 2013.