Nira Pereg “Sabbath 2008” at Chiado Museum, Lisbon, Portugal

August 9, 2011

http://www.museuartecontemporanea.gov.pt/en/programacao/1069

Poetic Things That Are Political” is a screening programme that brings together previously unseen videos in Portugal by Austin Shull and Chelsea Knight (USA), Cao Fei (China), Carla Zaccagnini (Brazil), Daniel Jewesbury (Northern Ireland), Katarina Zdjelar (Serbia), Nástio Mosquito/Bofa da Cara (Angola), Nira Pereg (Israel) and Rita Sobral Campos (Portugal). Hailing from and working in diverse regions, these artists possess a vision of the world that is marked by the intersecting of global processes with local dynamics, turning their context into the place of the other. This characteristic, which is based in identity, defines their attitude to social life, which is expressed through symbolically inclined poetic gestures that create political acts replete with critical content. This “poetic-political” aspect frames an experience of the real that is freed from the illusory and rooted in the factual, and in which action that is disinterested but committed to change replaces representation in the artistic practice.

Nástio Mosquito/Bofa da Cara tackles the relationship between Africans and European colonialists during the twentieth century, noting the stereotypes that embodied it. Daniel Jewesbury depicts New Lodge Road, an area of Belfast whose Catholic population espouses Republican ideals. Katarina Zdjelar focuses her gaze on a group of Italian citizens whose goal is to transform their community. Austin Shull and Chelsea Knight explore the emerging tension in structures of confinement, from prisons to hospitals. Carla Zaccagnini proposes a journey through the history of music that evokes Jan Johannson, a Swedish pianist. Cao Fei reveals, in an operatic tone, the wonders and false hopes of RMB City, a virtual city planned by her on Second Life. Nira Pereg documents the temporary closing off of Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods in preparation for the Sabbath. Rita Sobral Campos fictionalises a dystopian society ruled by Mr Leader, a contentious figure who launches himself on a crusade against reason.

Curated by Miguel Amado

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