Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 30

Figure 13. Manuel Botelho, Aqui não há absolutamente
nada (inclui excerto de aerograma de Manuel Beça
Múrias) (There is absolutely nothing here; with a quote from
an aerogram by Manuel Beça Múrias (����)), pencil and
watercolor on paper, �� x ��.� cm�. (Courtesy: The artist)
As Bleiker (����:�) explains, even in a world dominated by images “we
ultimately need words to make sense of our world. Language … is the
process through which we represent and make sense of ourselves and
our surroundings: the cultural crystallization of who we are as people.”
Words, incorporated into drawings, speak to us together with the drawings.
This “speaking together” may capitalize on what Gilgen (����:��) calls a
mutually supportive “intellectual stereoscopic effect: the image gains in
profile through the verbal information conveyed in the caption; from the
accompanying image this information gains persuasive power.” The texts are
important because they link the works of art with what happened “such a
long time ago [in] Angola, Guinea and Mozambique” (Botelho) to which the
artist cannot himself testify from own experience. They are important as
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