Fluvial

'Fluvial' is a meditation on the riverside beaches of northern and central inland Portugal. These are places with which Mouraz has a lifelong relationship and through the images he transmutes personal geography into a fictional atmosphere. And just as the river currents have shaped the natural elements, the passage of time has shaped his gaze. Irony is replaced by a kindness and gentleness towards his equals, and a fascination with form and analogy. These are the informal moments of family life, of Portuguese society, relaxed, and at leisure. Bodies, tree trunks and river-bed rocks begin to resemble sculptures; human bodies, almost amphibious, are often reduced to the simplest of forms, shaped by light or submerged under a surface of water, with the river bed becoming almost an optical instrument. Realistic yet dreamlike, Mouraz conveys a pagan sense of nature, creating the atmospheric effect of an infinite Sunday, a summer dream and a visual ode to human leisure.