As with other photographs in this series, the oblique inclination of the composition of the image is the strongest characteristic in defining its point of view. The restricted space that opens up between the handrail or crossbeam and the opening outlined in the building is the space by which we can access the outside from the closed perimeter of the image.

But what we are led to notice by accepting the strong lines of this frame is the longitudinal alignment of small flat stones, rounded and irregular, that forge a path through the grass. Behind a curve visible next to the building in which we find ourselves, the path extends to the limits of our gaze and, probably, beyond it. This element, typical of the Japanese garden, has a disarming simplicity, that the slanting composition of the image enhances poetically. But while outside, and despite the lack of people, the place appears ready to welcome human strolls and journeys, here inside there is a feeling of non-belonging that has something nostalgic about it.

Leonor Nazaré
Curator at the CAM