The Magic Lantern in the works of Renato Ferrão and Francisco Tropa: from reproduction to presentation

Abstract

Starting from an approach to the phantasmatic as an element of experience and perception in contemporary art, this article seeks to reflect on the technical, optical and performative dimensions of projection and the magic lantern in the work of Portuguese artists Renato Ferrão (Braga, 1975) and Francisco Tropa (Lisbon, 1968), who often recreate devices based on the principles of magic lanterns, reflecting on different phantasmagorical and virtual subjects in art installations. From a ghostly and illusory becoming, the works Em Trabalho (2016-2017) by Renato Ferrão and Scenario (2011) by Francisco Tropa are established in a thought about the image in the technical contemporaneity and, more broadly, about elements such as projection, obsolescence, aura, image reproduction, installation topology, materiality and immateriality, or, representation and presentation.