Why do we enjoy appreciating a city from a higher vantage point, like a lookout point, so much?
Every city has, among its places worth visiting, privileged observation points.
Here in Rio de Janeiro, there are examples already incorporated into the city's collective imagination: Corcovado, Sugarloaf Mountain, Vista Chinesa, Pedra Bonita, among many others. Because of how frequently they are seen, they often go unnoticed.
Upon reaching these places, the city seems to reorganize itself before your eyes. From above, it reveals itself as more beautiful, more harmonious, almost silent. A subtle feeling of perfection arises, as if, for a moment, urban life could exist in absolute balance.
This experience is repeated in different cities around the world.
In Vienna, the old Ferris wheel, with its wooden cabins, offers a suspended view of the city. In Madrid, the viewpoint of the Cibeles Palace reveals the diagonal design of the avenues, like a carefully thought-out geometric pattern.
In New York, rooftops have become attractions in their own right. The skyline, seen from above, changes depending on the angle.
Lisbon is perhaps one of the cities that best exemplifies this relationship between landscape and contemplation. Its viewpoints, scattered across the hills, bring the observer closer to the city. At the Miradouro da Graça, for example, the Tagus River seems to frame the buildings.
There are also moving views: the view from the window of an airplane approaching São Paulo, when the residential towers appear "after" Ibirapuera Park.
The peace conveyed by these images, however, does not entirely correspond to urban reality. Cities are also made of speed, excess, conflict, and imperfections, but, from a distance, the noise diminishes. The eye selects the essential and transforms chaos into composition.
Perhaps that's precisely what we seek when we observe a city from above: a sense of order, calm, and permanence. A kind of silent utopia.
This collection of works exhibited in the gallery aims to recapture, within a geometric language and vocabulary, the feeling of perfection, calm, and security.
Manuel Novello
Exhibition | Looking from afar
From June 01st to July 10th
Visits by appointment only.
