With a consolidated international reputation, the work of Cabrita (Lisbon, 1956) became crucial for the understanding of sculpture from the mid-1980s onwards. His complex oeuvre is characterised by an idiosyncratic philosophical and poetic discourse and comprises a wide range of different media: painting, sculpture, photography, drawing and installations composed of found materials and manufactured objects. The constant dialogue with the history of art, and the combination of memories, gestures and actions of daily life, accentuate the strong metaphoric impulse that his creations invariably hold.

Created on a monumental scale, fragments of the construction universe appear integrated in (somewhat) abstract structures. Compound #9 (2006) is a work consisting of a three-dimensional grid of rebar, iron rods used to reinforce concrete structures. This block is permeable to the eye, seemingly suspended in time, empty yet absolutely solid, establishing a direct relationship with the observer and with the dimensions of the human body — understood as a symbolic model for all representation.

Production: Serralves Foundation — Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto