NAILED RATHORICS
Museum Art Architecture Technology (MAAT)
12 Feb 2020 – 19 May 2020
RU alumni Von Calhau! presents Unharias Ratóricas at Lisboa’s Maat Museum, February 12, to May 19, 2020.
“Unharias Ratóricas” [Nailed Rathorics] is a Von Calhau! exhibition. Unharias is a valise-word that unites Unhas [nails in Portuguese] and Ninharias [knick-knacks]. Unhas [nails] are structures composed by keratin, that can be found on the fingertips of some animals. Ninharias [knick-knacks] are small or insignificant things. Rhatorics is the plural of Rhatoric. Rhatoric is a possible ersatz [substitute] for rhetoric, in which the E of Elusion is replaced by the A of Allusion. Alludes to the image of an animal that also has nails: the Rat. This allusion is a nod to the Oulipian thesis, which states that writers are rats that build labyrinths from where they try to escape. This harmless spreader of diseases is a radical vehicle of virus. And if language is a virus, as stated by a well-known exterminator that sometimes was also a writer then the rat is an amazing vehicle and spreader of words. Words that pile up generating texts. Texts that pile up generating books. The French word for books is Livres [also “to be free” in Portuguese]. Livres standing in front of the mirror ends up being servile. A servile rat looking at the mirror. A servile rat looking at the mirror moving in the dark night, trying to escape the labyrinth whose construction doesn’t stop wanting to construct.
