Altered Scenes

Altered Scenes (2024)
Photographic installation, 654 x 80 cm

During Dæhlin’s stay in Castro Marim, he was invited to work in the Ermida de Santo António, a small local church from the mid-17th century. The main altar is in Mannerist style, with baroque decorations depicting the main themes from the life and work of Saint Anthony of Lisbon, a Portuguese Franciscan monk and saint of travelers, lovers, miners, and others. The contrasts between the stories of the saints, the baroque architecture, and the use of the church as a storeroom for weapons and gunpowder during the last war reinforced the room’s distinctive atmosphere.

The artist himself says that the place made a strong impression on him,
and that for him the historical layer of the church room reflected both the ongoing war in Ukraine and the severe drought in southern Portugal. These experiences turned into an almost bodily experience that Dæhlin took with him in the performative working process that resulted in the works he exhibits at Nitja – dedicated to this special place and the material that arose in the meeting between his own body, the stories of Saint Anthony, the interior of the church, and Walter Benjamin’s “angel of history”.