Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 32

“immediately recognizable by anyone who directly experienced that prison
which was also the war.” They consist of nothing else than numbers indicating
the amount of days a soldier had still to serve, and survive, until the end of
the commission (o final da comissão). Collected from flea markets, these
documents communicate pain, terror and boredom (“there is absolutely
nothing here”; see Figure ��); they symbolize the seeming endlessness of
each and every day that had to pass before yet another number could be
crossed. The artist’s approach is minimalistic. No additional language is
required, just numbers from � to ��� or lists of years, months, and weeks.
Despite their materiality, these documents cannot be limited to materiality;
they are “inextricably connected with individual people.” At the same time,
they show “the shared experience of a generation”—the men of Botelho’s
generation (Möller ����:���). Are these diaries witnesses, perhaps even moral
witnesses?
Figure 14. Manuel Botelho, Contagem Descrescente 1967–1969 (�). Photograph:
Manuel Botelho. (Courtesy: The artist)
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