Maria Nobre Franco: During the End is an inner journey made of concerns and daring. The crossing of a mental space beset by mystery, disturbance and a strange magic that involves the human condition, destiny. Isn't that decisive in Rui Chafes?»

This edition was published as a tribute to Maria Nobre Franco (Messejana, 1938 - Cascais, 2015), during the exhibition In the Kingdom of the Clouds: the Artists and the Invention of Sintra, held between May and October 2021, at the Sintra Arts Museum (MUSE).

And even then I knew that we live because others live, just for that. Because what they show me becomes mine: this is the raw generosity of this helpless life. A tiny gigantic eye that sees everything and in which everything is reflected: rooms, doors, portraits hanging on the wall, windows. All reflected in the glass sphere of that eye that you once offered me, wrapped in clear paper. Because we are like stones thrown into the air that will eventually meet, your voice has always been an unspeakable gift to me. With you, for you, for existing, the world has become bigger, huge.

And when we die, if we die, God won't know what to do. We don't have much more than that. But it's so much. "No, don't cry, you don't", you said, "you have clear eyes and whoever has clear eyes can never cry". Everyone believes that through clear eyes everything is seen more clearly. And it was especially when there was no sun and the mist covered the mountain forest, that you climbed the boulders to reach the statue of the Warrior, who would also have clear eyes. It is curious that they call it the Statue of the Giant, or of Parsifal, or of the Architect, of the Builder. Besides, what else can you do in this world but build? They tell me. Build like someone trying to make sense of their ephemeral passage. So obvious, isn't it?

[Rui Chafes]