On the backside of the industrial tiles, we can see a drawing of the map of Seixal , with the indication of the bay area and also the cities of Lisbon and Barreiro. The entire water line that runs through the tiled spaces leads to the reading of the chart, unfolded, slightly red colored, which once was floor tiling. In the informed spaces, we move through the dockside, the main streets, the residential areas. By the side, a bundle of sugarcane picked from the community garden, with a resemblance of color and lines in the details of the nodes and roots. On one of the tips, small fishing floats found on the beach. At the bottom of the map, a copper plate shows the reading direction to be followed.
Where I meet the Tagus. Isabelle Catucci. Tile with inscriptions, sugar cane, buoy and copper. Photo by the author, 2021.
The map is filled by the water of the affluences, distant influences.
On the ceramic is the return to the industrialized object of earth, coldly calculated, cut into compositive spaces on the floor. Moving through the sense of the materials, here, is knowing the oddness of the sugarcane on such an unsuitable land for cultivation, of a past that emerges and lays down on details, that comes up to the surface in the serene waters of the eye.
