Beginner’s Mind: Walking a 45-million-year-old path
Óscar Faria
Pedro Vaz’s exhibition Beginner’s Mind began long before he conceived it. One could say its origins trace back thirty-five years, to 1991, when Rui Calçada Bastos, then twenty years old, set out on a trek through the Indian Himalayas—an experience that later gave rise to the photographic series Paisagem para Desaparecidos II (“Landscape for the Disappeared II”, 2018). But its roots stretch even deeper, to the formation of the mountains themselves over 45 million years ago—peaks near Ladakh that have never ceased to shift and evolve.
It’s a long story, that unfolds at the crossroads of geology and art, religion and landscape, humanity and nature. Pedro Vaz is a wanderer. His practice aligns with the tradition of land art, particularly echoing the work of British artists Hamish Fulton and Richard Long, who, since the 1960s, have traversed vast landscapes across the globe, distilling their journeys into works of profound poetic resonance.
After encountering Rui Calçada Bastos’ 1991 photographs in 2018, Pedro Vaz set out to retrace the same path in 2022. His journey, however, covered a shorter distance, as much of the original route had since been overtaken by road infrastructure. This transformation introduced new challenges, with artificial gradients from recent road construction reshaping the terrain.
