THE MOUTH OF HELLCurated by Óscar Faria

Von Calhau!, Isabel Carvalho, Rosa Carvalho, Cora 1988, Gil Heitor Cortesão, Luís Paulo Costa, Renato Ferrão, Karl Holmqvist, Sofia Leitão, Fabrizio Matos, Sebastião Resende, Fernando J. Ribeiro

The autumn equinox of 2014 took place on the 23rd at 3:29am. In 1930, in this change of season, Aleister Crowley disappeared in Boca do Inferno (Mouth of hell), a geological formation on the coast of Cascais. Produced with the complicity of Fernando Pessoa and journalist Augusto Ferreira Gomes, who “found” a farewell letter and a cigarette case with Egyptian-inspired cabalistic symbols on the cliff, this pseudo-suicide has had several explanations for its realization. The escape from creditors and the abandonment of a lover, Hanni Jaeger, who had shaken from Lisbon days before the simulacrum, are two plausible explanations, but there are also those who put the emphasis on the humor of both characters.

This was the starting point of A Boca do Inferno, a collective exhibition that brought together works by 12 artists, to which were added ethnographic objects, masks and sculptures from Africa, Asia and Europe. The idea of ​​disappearance crossed this exhibition, which was also inhabited by a desire to emphasize the magical dimension of art which, in this context, was manifested not only through the dialogue between contemporary works and ritual and votive artifacts, but also in the evocation of universes as diverse as poetry, illusionism or speleology.

It comes to memory the famous photograph in which Fernando Pessoa and Aleister Crowley appear together playing chess. An ode from Ricardo Reis helps to compose the scenario of this match:

I heard it told that once Persia
Was engaged in some war or other,
When invaders were burning down the City
And the women were screaming,
Two players went on playing
Their endless game of chess.

There is however an important detail, the person on the right of photograph is not the Portuguese poet. As it was explained by the historian Marco Pasí: “Around 2006 I received the information that it would be possible to identify Crowley’s opponent in the photo. It was William Breeze, a known Crowley specialist that told me – with certainty – that the person was a R. A. Starr, an acquaintance of Crowley in the beginning of the 30’s.

Not everything that the eyes see is true. What you hear may be a lie. “… The simulacrum is never what hides the truth – it is the truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrumis true".

Do as you wish.
 
Abracadabra! Welcome to The Mouth of Hell.