The article uses a concept proposed by Walter Benjamin for understanding the artwork of Swiss-Brazilian painter Mira Schendel. In Schendel, the search for a primordial experience - a non representable core that inhabits each representation - is expressed by the reduction to a foundational gesture which is usually concealed by an excess of ornamentation, metaphors and figurative meanings. This procedure was described in Benjamin's essay on Kafka, where he calls it reduction to the gesture. The article tries to explore the power of this concept, working the way Schendel coul formalize it in her artwork.
gesture; representation; fine arts; Mira Schendel; Walter Benjamin
