Portuguese young talent

Diana Silva, Heart Necklace (2003)

(This is a neckless made with the crochet technique, I believe)

ps.: I have just bought bluetooth for my laptop, at last, which will allow me to post pics and films from my mobile phone. Meaning - expect more terrible quality "new art" photos and films from Portugal!

Cities/People/Bodies

Is there a surface that goes beyond itself? How deep does it go? Can we go so far to the surface of the picture, we go beyond it? It is only skin, matched and resampled as in a game, as in a text. And what are they really saying through the skin? This is who we are? This is what we are? Identity? So close? So quick, so easy?

Tokyo I
Berlin
Cape Town I
Buenos Aires
Deception

Selected pictures from The Nude Adrift Portfolio, by Spencer Tunick (at the Guy Hepner Contemporary gallery in London)

Workshop

I'll be directing a workshop next week in Montemor-o-Velho, entitled "Between Performance and Theater" (Portuguese link). I want to explore the zone between acting, enacting, performing and participating, so it should be a lot of fun and pretty challenging.

Technorati: performance, performance art, art, contemporary art, vvoi

Birdwatching (1)

During the Serpa seminar, I did some filming. The goal was a specific type of (experimental) documentary, but the bad quality of sound made it unviable. One of the filmed sequences, though, came out amazing: a group of birds flying around in the setting southern sun.

Every time I saw the material, I became fascinated with the moving image, its fluidity, its combination of harmony and power and playfulness, the games of shadows and highlights. The entire scene lasts less than a minute, probably about 30 seconds. On the other hand, it seems just the right amount of starting material.
But for what?

Blur Building

My girlfriend has made me discover the Blur Building, by Elizabeth Diller and (husband) Ricardo Scofidio (Diller&Scofidio - notice her name comes first, very nice and rare!), or rather, the recordings of it (scroll for the article), as it was disassembled after the Swiss Expo in 2002. It seems like a truly extraordinary project - a building that's a cloud. Witty, poetic, and above all - real!
It reminded me of one of Woody Allen's funniest characters - the man that became out-of-focus in Deconstructing Harry.
Diller&Scofidio have made and collaborated on many other fascinating projects, ranging from performances, to installations, to video art.
Long live artist couples!

Technorati: architecture, art installation, installation, art, contemporary art, vvoi