On February 20 (Saturday), at 11am, Galpão VB will kick off its 2016 exhibition program with the opening of Videobrasil Collection in Context #1. The exhibit will showcase the results of the first edition of the artist residency project Videobrasil in Context, which proposed for the two selected artists, Cláudio Bueno (Brazil) and Mahmoud Khaled (Egypt), to create brand new artworks by immersing themselves in the Videobrasil Collection. The show also features the artworks that served as objects of research and conceptual references for Bueno’s and Khaled’s projects, including videos by Akram Zaatari (Lebanon), Coco Fusco (USA), Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil) and Wagner Morales (Brazil), among others. At 3pm of the same day, the two artists will guide a tour of the exhibition, open untill until March 19 free admission.
Created in 2012, the Videobrasil in Context project is part of Associação Cultural Videobrasil’s Residency Program and aims to foster artist exchange in association with the Videobrasil Collection, currently comprising near-10,000 items – 4,500 of which are catalogued and available for public consultation at Galpãp VB (including videos, video installations, recorded performances, publications and documents).
The first edition of the Videobrasil in Context project was held by Associação Cultural Videobrasil in a partnership with the Delfina Foundation and Casa Tomada. For three months, the artists Cláudio Bueno and Mahmoud Khaled, selected via a call for entries, undertook residencies at those organizations. In São Paulo, they each explored the Videobrasil Collection and shaped up their research. In London, they developed their projects and showcased, at the Whitechapel Gallery, the Videobrasil Collection pieces that served as mileposts in creating their commissioned artworks.
Cláudio Bueno created, in partnership with Paula Garcia – an artist featured in the 17th Festival and the author of one of the recorded performances used as a reference by Bueno –, the installation Estudo para duelo. For his part, Mahmoud Khaled conceived the video installation Proposal for a Porn Company, in connection with other Videobrasil Collection works. The pieces produced by the artists and shown in the exhibition Videobrasil Collection in Context #1 will also be included in the Associação’s collection.
Estudo para Duelo invites visitors to put on magnetized vests and walk down a six-meter long metallic hallway from opposing ends. Contact between the participants is prevented by the magnetic field created between the vests. According to the artist, the piece suggests analogies with the power fields that exist in day-to-day relationships, whether interpersonal, with spaces or with institutions. “Such forces, which aren’t seen, but felt in our bodies, can be interpreted as power, information, relationship etc.,” he asserts. The piece was created during Cláudio Bueno’s residency stint at the Delfina Foundation.
The three-channel video installation Proposal for a Porn Company, by Mahmoud Khaled, works with the universe explored by porn video production company MEN AT PLAY, which specializes in erotic storylines featuring male characters from the corporate and business world. Set in the city of São Paulo, where the artist undertook a residency at Casa Tomada, the videos seek out urban locations that could serve as settings for a hypothetical film by the company. The audience may recognize places such as Conjunto Nacional, Avenida Paulista, Congonhas Airport or the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture. The scenes are interspersed with audio and video excerpts from MEN AT PLAY films, which unfold and deconstruct the narrative structure of a porn production.
On March 17 (Thursday) at 8pm, the panel " The Body in the work of Claudio Bueno" will bring together the artist and the journalist and professor Fabio Cypriano for a debate , mediated by Ruy Luduvice, researcher of the Associação Cultural Videobrasil.
/DIALOGUES WITH THE VIDEOBRASIL COLLECTION
Cláudio Bueno’s proposal was deeply influenced by the program and artworks of the Festival’s 15th edition, which was entirely devoted to performance. For that reason, the exhibit includes footage of performances like Bare Life Study #1 (2005), by Coco Fusco; #4 (from the series Corpo Ruído – Estudo para um Soterramento) (2011), by Paula Garcia; Chelpa Ferro (2005), by Chelpa Ferro; and Engrenagem (2005), by Eder Santos.
In turn, the piece by Mahmoud Khaled, an artist featured in the 18th Festival (2013), was instigated by artworks that deal with human relationships and are firmly rooted in an urban setting. Várzea (2006), by Estúdio Bijari (Brasil); Não há Ninguém Aqui #1(2000), by Wagner Morales (Brazil); Desvios, Derivas, Contornos (2007), by Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil); Video in 5 Movements (2006) and Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright (2010), both by Lebanon’s Akram Zaatari; and the video installation Oracle (2009), by Sebastián Díaz Morales (Argentina).
/ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Cláudio Bueno | São Paulo, Brazil, 1983
Bueno’s work combines performance, installation and technologies, exploring aspects of those languages through the triad of body, space and information. He holds a PhD in Visual Arts from the University of São Paulo (USP), for his thesis “Campos de Invisibilidade” [Fields of Invisibility]. Bueno has been selected for residencies at the São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound (MIS-SP), at the La Chambre Blanche in Quebec, Canada and at the Delfina Foundation in London. His work has been featured at domestic and international art centers including the Hessel Museum of Art/CCS Bard, in New York, USA; Centro Multimedia in Mexico City, Mexico; Paço das Artes, Luciana Brito Galeria, Itaú Cultural, Tomie Ohtake Institute, São Paulo Cultural Center and at different units of Sesc (Social Service of Commerce) in São Paulo, Brazil, among other venues. He is currently a member of O grupo inteiro (comprised of Carol Tonetti, Cláudio Bueno, Ligia Nobre and Vitor Cesar). Cláudio Bueno lives and works out of São Paulo.
Mahmoud Khaled | Alexandria, Egypt, 1982
Through Khaled’s work, we are subjected to the conceptual repercussions of a scrutinizing gaze that basically relates to the grey areas between public living and its personal counterparts. He is pursuing a master's degree in Fine Arts from the Trondheim Academy in Norway. His work has been featured in solo and group shows at art halls and centers throughout Europe and the Middle East, including the Stedelijk Museum Bureau in Amsterdam; Institute du Monde Arabe/IMA in Paris; and the Bonner Kunstverein in Bonn. He has been selected for residencies at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, USA; the Delfina Foundation in London, UK; the Bronx Museum in New York, USA, among other organizations. Mahmoud Khaled lives and works between Alexandria, Egypt and Trondheim, Norway.
VIDEOBRASIL COLLECTION IN CONTEXT #1
OPENING February 20, 2016, 11am to 5pm
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
February 20 (Saturday), 3pm
Guided tour with the artists Cláudio Bueno and Mahmoud Khaled
(Portuguese / English - no translation)
March 17 (Thursday), 8pm
“The body in Cláudio Bueno’s work” – Panel ft. Cláudio Bueno and Fábio Cypriano, with moderation from Ruy Luduvice
GALPÃO VB | ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL
Av. Imperatriz Leopoldina, 1150 — Vila Leopoldina, São Paulo, Brazil
VISIT February 20 to March 19, 2016
Tuesdays to Fridays, 1pm to 7pm; Saturdays, 11am to 5pm
FREE ADMISSION
www.videobrasil.org.br
