Adagio, 2013–19
After living as a man for nearly 60 years, Laerte Coutinho, one of Brazil’s most brilliant cartoonists, introduces herself to the world as a woman.
Between being and image, there is a split. Being, core, essence. The image, peel appearance. The photograph, image that describes the appearance: bark of the bark. But between the image and the being, there is a fusion. The shell of his being is part of it, it is where he expresses himself, which allows him to be perceived by the other.
There is a power to be in the image. Does dressing and behaving in a certain way make a man a woman? Is externalizing an internal feeling, an identity, through visible traits a way of being? Is being in the image less strong than another possibility of being? Laerte and I are not here to resolve ambiguities but to confront them. With nudity, appearance more fragile and at the same time more vigorous of being. With the seduction of the body image and the immateriality of it.
White-and-black body design. Body skin man-woman. Adagio is a photo essay composed of portraits of appearances. An essay on being by image.
Adagio has already participated in national and international exhibitions, besides integrating the first Brazilian Netflix documentary, Laerte-se, directed by Lygia Barbosa da Silva and Eliane Brum, and also part of the Schwules Museum collection, in Berlin.
