I've always regarded Ana Paganini's work as a confluence between the traditions of war photojournalism and fashion reporting. The first of these categories seeks to show the phenomenon of a conflict and its impact on people and places through the use of emotion (and the expectation that it will multiply), while the second focuses on the modus – encompassing not only garments but the whole set of aesthetic options, more or less exotic, that convey the intended message. Even if paradoxically, both categories meet at times.

In this particular exhibition, one side of Ana’s practice is revealed (which we had already seen in part in the forcadosseries): the documentation of performance, more specifically of the spectacle of religion. The performance of devotion, processions in public space, has its own codes and traditions. What the artist does in this case is the documentation of these passionate demonstrations and what they mean in the contemporary context: renting polyester suits for €10 a day; the sheaths that drag on the boiling hot tar; the atmosphere of querido mês de Agosto in the villages; the electro-technical apparatus and accessories that are kept all year round in the garage (such as Christmas lights) taken to the streets.

What I admire about Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet is the dignity with which the artist portrays subjects and objects. Light always appears as a miracle (a dancing sun?) and people as perfectly aware of the living mystery and the importance of repeating the supposed gestures that were the holy roots of something and somewhere. What binds me to these images is the ecstasy of being together. It is possible that this is the only truly luminous human phenomenon and ritual: we’re not done with each other, yet.

Isabel Cordovil