Paris London Hong Kong is pleased to present Lived Landscape, a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Pedro Vaz consisting of ten acrylic paintings on watercolor paper. The exhibition will open on Friday, March 3, from 5 – 8pm, and continue through April 22, 2023.

On August 4, 1881, the first scientific expedition to the Serra da Estrela (The Mountain of the Star) began. The voyage, organized by the Geographic Society of Lisbon, included more than 100 specialists in fields such as archaeology, anthropology, botany, geology, medicine, meteorology, and photography. A topographic auxiliary commission also joined the project to create the first cartographic survey of the area. Descending on one of the highest mountain ranges in continental Portugal, these explorers trekked through uncharted high pastures and river valleys.

140 years later in 2022, Pedro Vaz set out to retrace the steps taken on the first expedition of Portugal’s famous mountain range. During his journey he produced photographs, sketches, and writings. Vaz shares, “Although we ourselves are an integral part of the natural environment, contemporary man has lost the link of the ancestral union with nature.” He continues, “this is because from the moment we became self-conscious, we ceased to see the natural environment around us as a continuation of ourselves, to think of it as separate and above all to act in accordance with that separation.” The aim of his journey and subsequently his practice has been to reconcile the terms of this duality.

After returning from his own expedition he revisited his own documentation of the trip and produced this series of paintings recalling his memories hiking through the mountain range.