CYDR: POSTCARDS FROM THE FUTURE

In the landscape of contemporary art, where the boundary between real and digital dissolves into a continuous flow of distorted images and memories, Cydr’s practice emerges as a sensitive reflection on our relationship with technology, nostalgia, and the perception of the everyday. With the new series Postcards, the Brazilian artist reformulates the very concept of visual memory, using digital tools not only as an expressive medium but as an extension of their gaze on the world.

barreira, Cydr

The Origins of a Digital Aesthetic

Born in 2002 in Curitiba, Cydr developed an early artistic practice through traditional drawing and painting, before stumbling upon the digital world almost by accident during a Photoshop class. From that moment on, their artistic journey evolved into continuous experimentation, a process that led them to deconstruct and reassemble the visible through the filters of glitch, visual interference, and memory distortion. The transition from physical to digital was not just a change in medium but an evolution that allowed the artist to manipulate time and space with greater expressive freedom.

resenha, Cydr

Postcards: Reinterpreting Memory Through the Digital Realm

Postcards is a collection born from an intimate urgency: to capture fleeting moments through photography and transform them into an altered visual narrative. The idea of the fragment, of a moment that risks being lost in the fluidity of time, is central to this series. The works incorporate graphic elements such as arrows, marks, and visual annotations, almost as if to emphasize the importance of each captured detail. Traditionally, postcards are objects filled with affection and memory, yet Cydr subverts this idea: rather than being faithful recollections of a place or moment, these images are interpretations, simulacra that convey a sense of fractured familiarity.

correria, Cydr

This process of rewriting visual memory connects with the practices of artists like Cory Arcangel and Jon Rafman, who explore the relationship between digital culture and image perception. Like them, Cydr operates in a space that oscillates between irony and melancholy, between nostalgia for a pre-social media era and the acceptance of memory’s fragmentation in our hyper-connected present. While glitch aesthetics have often been used to comment on the fragility and fallibility of technology, here they take on a more introspective meaning: the image is not corrupted by a system error but by a personal reflection on the nature of recollection itself.

Nostalgia and Technology: A Fragile Balance

Nostalgia is a fundamental component in Cydr’s work, drawing on childhood experiences with video games and internet culture. Their approach to visual creation balances playfulness with introspection, between the freedom of exploration and the necessity of shaping a personal visual language. This duality is also reflected in their working method, where digital manipulation is not merely a technical tool but a conscious choice to reinvent and distort the meaning of original images.

Pastel de nata, Cydr

The message of Postcards is both intimate and universal: to reflect on the small moments that cross our lives, on the images that pass us by daily and often go unnoticed. The artist invites an awareness of the present that can coexist with the fluidity of digital media without losing connection to physical reality. It is a subtle yet incisive reminder in an era where memory is increasingly mediated by screens and the very concept of authenticity is in constant redefinition.

The Future of Cydr’s Art

At just 22 years old, Cydr navigates the contemporary art scene with rare clarity. His work aligns with research exploring the hybridization of photography, digital art, and post-internet visual languages, creating fertile ground for new forms of storytelling. If the future of memory is digital, Postcards reminds us that the act of remembering remains, at its core, a human, subjective, and ever-changing gesture. Like a postcard sent to oneself from a place that exists only in interpretation.

to cansado, Cydr