Salette Tavares: musicality and the visuality of words in space-time

Abstract

Following previous studies regarding “between words, sounds and images” in the 1960s and 1970s and on experimentalism in the Portuguese music scene, we propose a reading of specific works by Salette Tavares in dialogue with other 'artistic experimenters' (Jorge Peixinho, Ana Hatherly and Anna Maria Maiolino), meeting the concept formulated by Ernesto de Sousa of 'aesthetic operators' (1969) and thinking about the affinities between demonstrative languages of identity solidity. Tavares participated in the Concerto e Audição Pictórica (1965), a decisive action in the Portuguese panorama. The articulation between the “images of sounds/written words” propagated acts that resonate in the public. “Words are also deeds” (Wittgenstein, 1999). Words are images that are sounds that are choreographic acts. And the reverse is interchangeable, as Art is a game – Schiller or Gadamer dixit. In the aesthetic universe of the poet-visual-aesthete, proposed notations/sounds are identified, visual-sound-verbic compositions are suggested. It reflects on the visual-sign configuration of these reified writings/sounds/movements, potentially intuitive music, mental dynamisms and admitting the haptic dimension that permeates them. Looking/reading/listening provides experiences of completeness, summons presences and enjoyments. Tavares' work provides aesthetic experiences of unveiling, showing signs of fullness, contributing to educational aesthetic experiences, perhaps 'disinterested', to paraphrase Kant.