BUDAPEST.- Tipo Passe by Angolan photographer Edson Chagas, is a series that addresses questions of history, culture and identity. The artist’s birthplace of Angola was subjected to colonial rule by the Portuguese from 1575 until independence in 1975. The culture and traditions of the local population were largely disregarded and ‘unseen’ by the European colonialists.

Edson Chagas stages portraits of models wearing traditional African masks borrowed from a private collection. The artefacts have been extrapolated from their history and context; the sitters are dressed in contemporary clothes from street markets, complementing the colours and forms of the masks. These objects with immense ritual meaning and a compelling presence are suspended between worlds, and prompt the viewer to question the reality of what he or she is perceiving

The images in this series are photographed in the style of passport photographs. Chagas has used this format, perhaps the most common form of photography, and transformed it into large-scale portraits. A globally recognised form of identification and the fundamental document to enable migration and movement across borders, passport photograph has an increased significance in the twenty-first century.

Edson Chagas was born in 1977 in Luanda, Angola, and lives between Angola and Portugal. He studied photography at the University of Wales in Newport, London College of Communication, and Portugal's Escola Técnica de Imagem e Comunicação and Centro Comunitário de Arcena.

In 2013, Chagas’ Found Not Taken series was exhibited at the Angolan Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for best national pavilion.

Solo exhibitions have taken place at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna; Instituto Camões – Centro Cultural Português, Luanda; and Belfast Exposed Photography. Shortlisted for the 11th Novo Banco Photo Award; recipient of the 2018 African Art Award presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.

Curator: Gábor Pintér
Supported by Erzsébetváros Municipality
Cooperation partner: Bischitz Johanna Integrated Human Service Centre