The Shamanic Power of Nature

Paula Guimarães divides her time between Careyes, on the coast, and Lisbon. Her work is recognized for the deep connection between shamanic powers and the healing capacities of nature.

In our indigenous cultures, it is understood that shamanic knowledge stems from an epistemology in which everything that exists—rocks, trees, the wind, the ocean, and deserts—is alive and possesses a soul. Therefore, we are all part of a corporeality that connects and unifies us. The natural world is full of life, populated by healing spirits that lead us toward an ontological awakening: the singing of birds, the crackling of fire, the sound of the wind, the roaring of waves. This exhibition reveals the shamanic power of Mother Earth. These extraordinary and disruptive times are a call to humanity to change course and reclaim the wisdom inherent in Nature.

Both series emerge along a subtle line that merges with what was, what has been, and what could have been. The creative dialogue oscillates between the artistic interpretation of historical characters and events, capturing a recurring image as a vision of a changing memory—in the series Nostalgic Memory of my Life before Birth—and to capture an image that repeats as a vision of that mutable memory, in the case of IMA, on Impossible Memories.

On the other hand, the works seem to delicately permeate one another, as if the faded environments of Miquel Arques molded the ideal settings where Soler-Roig’s characters could dwell… Ownerless hands, anonymous hair, hidden silhouettes, unknown bodies: they are like empty vessels waiting to be occupied by the cultural identities of the ancestral collective imaginary.