EXCERPT FROM CATARINA ROSENDO'S REPRESENTATIONS OF A COMMUNITY OF EXPERIENCE, (catalogue text) "a sound recording of statements collected by Alexandra do Carmo from the creators and spectators of the activities that took place at Quadrum under the direction of Dulce d' Agro, that can be listened to in the small hall preceding the Gallery's old deposit space, now transformed into a living room for the presentation". "The statements can only be heard through headphones installed in the backroom set aside for the purpose. The statements record the impressions of several people about works, performances or other events that took place at Quadrum, especially over the 1970s and 1980s. Different perceptive experiences stand out from what we are given to hear. For example, the visual quality of some of the descriptions: [...] She finished by pressing rose thorns into her arm, delineating a line so to speak which went from her shoulder, or practically her shoulder, down to her wrist." Or the reactions of the public: [...] suddenly the audience became really tense [...]; [...] it was all recorded, the way people looked, the questioning, the way they talked about what they were seeing [...]". Or the sensation of something new: [...] It was an installation, and I didnt know anything about that then"; [...] Finally seeing a big painting... It was one of the first times that I had seen my fellow Portuguese artists produce paintings of the size I had seen abroad". Or the awareness of the body as measure of comparison: [...] created an abstract pattern in space, which was about an arms length higher than the viewers eye level, and the same again below and a generous arm span in width. So when you were in front of it you basically felt like you were part of it". Several of the statements are expressive and descriptive and, when editing the audio material, Alexandra do Carmo tried to make the different voices follow on from each other in a cadence of small narratives separated by silences long enough for each to remain separate from the next yet, at the same time, to be interconnected through the visual thread and the sensations that they describe".

EXCERPT OF BRUNO MARQUE'S Prospective Memory for an artist studio in Brooklyn. Bringing these two vectors of research – memory and atelier - Alexandra do Carmo converts them in a researching field on issues of contemporary socio-political consciousness. In “Office/Commercial”, presenting herself as a “commercially” successful fine artist, with the company of a false assistant, and a previously contacted real estate agent, different each time, she initiates a path through Brooklyn, New York, pretending to rent an “art studio”. The starting point are encounters in different parts of the city, bringing a camera man with her, she collets video images and conversations with the excuse of being the subject of a documentary for her gallery in Lisbon, a documentary on her “arrival” in New York.
The artist mentions that “her intention is to create a social memory of the spaces that are being designated to the work of artists in the city (studio spaces), in order to confront this memory with the past of these buildings exposing it’s transformation”. Basically, Alexandra do Carmo positions herself in a transitional temporal site, precisely in the transitory space between the still functional place of the factory/warehouse and the beginning of its renovation. This way, “the presence of the artist in the old manufacturing spaces and future artist studios is the reality that allows connecting the present and the past of the buildings”, in other words and continuing to quote the artist
“ it is a proposal for a future utopic occupation, building the memory of the site”.

THE DUBLINER MAGAZINE: The stand-out piece is surely the stunning ‘A Willow (Or Without Godot)’ by Portuguese atist Alexandra do Carmo. Originaly created and exhibited in 2006 as part of IMMA’s residency programme, the artist takes of affirmative statements made by Estragon and Vladimir in the Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and places them in the unusual context of soundbites on an ipod. She also gives the Godot bench a new twist by placing two futons on the ground, encouraging the viewer to engage in the work and lay down to listen to these script snippets on the ipod. The futons themselves are laid out upon gravel taken from IMMA’s grounds (including the ubiquitous cigatette buts), adding to the surreal nature of the installation.