Marat and Zeca reflect a certain death of the revolutionary spirit – from the French Revolution of 1789 to the Portuguese Red Carnation Revolution of 25^th April 1974, which ended a fascist dictatorship of more than 40 years.

Drawing from the symbolic potential of images, these photos are anchored in two strong icons of the politics and the arts. In the history of the images the evocative painting by Jacques Louis David La Mort de Marat (1793, 165 x 128 cm) idealizes the revolution martyr as it shows us a beautiful Marat “Ami du Peuple” murdered in his bath. In contrast, in the photograph presented here there are no bodies, just traces of bodies: in a bathroom equally idealized, a blue towel falls over a bathtub and merges in a red-blood carpet. The revolution flag – also created by J.L. David – is evoked in a composition of classical appeal.

In Zeca, the name of the singer of the Portuguese Revolution Zeca Afonso, surprises us as it appears written in the centre of the photograph. Another classical image is evoked here, not pictorial but photographic and cinematic – in fact this photograph points us to the recurrent and anxious images of underground car parks. The inscription announces the exit of the car park with a promising Exit Zeca Afonso. Nevertheless, in the photograph the exit of the park presents us as blind wall, an enclosure.

In the two images Marat and Zeca, the evocation is simultaneously historical, poetic and iconic, of different revolutionary histories and geographies, already historicized by time and thought, therefore underlining their actuality with a sense of absurdity. From the French Revolution we still have the colours “Bleu Blanc Rouge”, from the Red Carnation Revolution a street with the name of its voice.

The interval that separates Marat and Zeca, the space to be filled between the two photographs, points to the more contemporary void of the lack of ideals. The impasse. After all where lays the exit?