SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY | LACS – en
Sentimental Journey, solo exhibition by Emilia Brandão Carneiro at LACS Cascais, Portugal, 2025.
“For three years, the swans of the Seine became silent companions to Emilia in her journey through grief, motherhood, and adaptation. Moving through personal challenges, she found in these birds a metaphor for her own path: imposing yet vulnerable beings, floating between solidity and flow. Each day, the swans’ movements along the river traced a spontaneous choreography—at times elegant, at times disconcerting—echoing the imperfection of existence.
Captured in black and white through multiple exposures, the images deconstruct the idealization of swans as icons of absolute grace. Some photographs reveal moments of torsion and disorder, emphasizing that beauty also resides in asymmetry and inconstancy. The diffuse aesthetic of the photographs translates the artist’s perception during a period in which she navigated between inner and outer worlds.
Brought from Denmark and Sweden by Louis XIV, who wished to admire the animals in his Paris, the descendants of those swans remain on the island that bears their name as a testament to permanence and transformation. Moving between contemplation and affection, Sentimental Journey emerges from a personal and meditative gaze and invites us to recognize the divine within the ordinary. Here, photography becomes an act of devotion to the passage of time and to the beauty of the everyday.”
Luiza Testa, curator
DATE: 21.nov.2025 – 17.jan.2026
LACS Creators, Cascais/Portugal
Curator: Luiza Testa