Les Sylphides, 2025

Linda: Let’s discuss Les Sylphides, a ballet that made history in 1836 because it was the first ballet to eliminate narrative and replace it with a romantic reverie. The ballet does not tell a story; it evokes the sensory ramifications of being in love. The ballet’s aestheticism and sensuality are precisely the qualities evoked by your interpretation. How do they factor into Permaculture?

Beatriz: These large-scale drawings revisit a classical narrative from a new perspective, one that reconsiders the paradigms we still struggle to address, even when they’ve already become more than obvious.
That’s why it made sense to present not only the two-dimensional pieces and the garden intervention—which implements Permaculture strategies for land, water, waste, and food—but also the idea of beauty only makes sense to me in a very broad sense. It can only be defined in relation to other things and is only “right” within a specific, defined context—as Derrida explored in Truth in Painting. For me, beauty is honesty. In theoretical terms, I deeply connect this idea to realism (as Goethe first proposed), postmodernism, and pragmatism. “Thank God”, this is Permaculture—so I allowed myself a little aesthetic joy too.

Excerpt from the interview with Linda Weintraub for the catalog of “O que conta é a intenção” (“it is the intention that matters”),  Casa da Cerca – Contemporary Art Center, April 2025.