EPICENTRO: MILAGRE

Exposição

EXHIBITION

Epicentro: Milagre

Sep 27, 2020 – Feb 21, 2021

ARTISTS | Berru, Francisco Lacerda, João Ferreira, Tito Mouraz, Vincent Moon & Priscilla Telmon

CURATORS | António Pedro Lopes, Joaquim Durães, Luís Banrezes, Márcio Laranjeira

In the Azores, at a time when the earth trembles every day, the emergence of a new island is said to be imminent. The miracle of a new territory enables a new future despite the planet’s transformation at the hands of men, pushing us to the earth’s submersion, the end of the world and the absolute unknown. People live inside an uncontained beauty, a volcanic paradise raised by the overwhelming power of nature, magical and unforeseen.

Nature, people, traditions and history connect in a fascinating geography of power games. Earthquakes and volcanoes, sea that does not fail but does not forgive, winds, rain and mists that appear as threats to change a secure and recognizable world. People fear the death of the earth and its irreversibility, and in this, an identity matrix is defined that fights with the strength of its hands against instability, insecurity and the uncertainties of life and elements.

Secular rituals unite communities in the practices of faith and belief to resist adversity and the unknown of Nature. Men and women begin with promises, cults, rites, praises and prayers to gods and places. They do this as a way to understand the world, as a way of interpreting the signs from above, as a way to endure the signs of the times.

Processions, empires, peregrinations, dancing, singing, the adoration of images found at sea – traditions of immersion and cult, redemption and protection, fear and punishment.

Epicentro: Milagre does not fit in the boundaries of what we know of natural laws, sliding,therefore, into faith, belief, delirium, imagination on the creation and destruction of nature and culture, the amazing divine, the tremor, the horror and “Let God’s will be done”. The exhibition looks at how the island’s specificity shapes a cultural identity, the “Azoreanity” in the image of Vitorino Nemésio, presenting artists whose works and researches incorporate the documentary, the fictional, the phantasmagoria or the call to immersion.

Artists that work with sound, photography, cinema and installation as creative process triggers and who were challenged to artist-in-residence programs, experimentation and research,thought and performance production, to create a plurality of perspectives on this natural and cultural territory.

These are visions from inside and outside, which now take over the ARQUIPÉLAGO as the epicenter for exhibition. They explore its dimensions of artistic creation and presentation, contributing to the reflection and confusion about what we think we know about the island where we stand, and create an incomplete set of miracles of the Azores that renews and expands a collection of contemporary art.

Curators

António Pedro Lopes, Joaquim Durães, Luís Banrezes, Márcio Laranjeira

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ARTISTS BIOGRAPHIES

BERRU

berru is an artist collective from Oporto trained in the Fine Arts, Multimedia, Cinema and Engineering and dedicated to artistic creation.

Their work reflects on the intimate relationship between human beings and machines, a relationship that increasingly focuses on philosophical, anthropological, political, social and ethical issues.

The collective has recently become interested in complex and biological systems, finding inspiration in the relationship between the human being and the world in order to think, debate and create.

The group’s background enables them to develop works involving various branches of artistic creation. By combining technology, art, science and philosophy, the collective gains an extensive perspective to explore various discourses with different tools and materials.

JOÃO FERREIRA

João Ferreira was born in Leiria, Portugal (1976), where he lives and works.

Photography accompanies him in a journey parallel to all his other activities since the nineties. Since 2012, the subjects of his works are dedicated to documentary photography, focusing on the identity and culture of the communities.

1.3 Billion is presented in 2014 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Leiria as a portrait of contemporary China, touring the country in several solo exhibitions, including the Azores and abroad in A Coruña, Spain at the international photo festival Outono Fotográfico.

In 2016, his work Archipelago was selected by Magnum and Canon for the portfolio review at Visa Pour l’Image, Perpignan; it was a finalist for the Discovery Award at Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal and received an honorable mention at Tokyo International Photo Awards, Japan. In 2017, this work was the winner of the International Photojournalism Prize Estação Imagem, in the daily life category.

In 2018, he presented O Paraíso Segundo José Maria, in Leiria, and later in Lisbon. In 2019, it was presented in Oporto, Pombal and Óbidos being also selected for the projections of the Discovery Award at Encontros da Imagem, Braga.

He has been regularly exhibiting since 2012, and his work is represented in institutional and private collections.

TITO MOURAZ

Tito Mouraz, 1977, Portugal.

He finished the Visual Arts and Photography course at Escola Superior Artística do Porto, in 2010, thus being the city where he currently lives and works currently. He has been regularly exhibiting since 2009 in Portugal and abroad. Some of the most significant exhibitions have taken place at Módulo – Centro Difusor de Arte (Lisbon); The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki); Format International Photography Festival (UK); Blanca Berlin Gallery (Spain); Tampere Art Museum (Finland); Museu da Imagem (Portugal); Fotofestiwal Lodz (Poland); Festival Circulation(s), Paris (France); Carpe Diem Art and Research (Lisbon) Encontros da Imagem, Braga (Portugal); Voies Off Gallery, Arles (France) etc.

Winner in 2013 of the Emergentes DST International Photography Award and the Portfolio Review Award, Carpe Diem Art and Research.

In Portugal he is represented by Módulo – Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisbon.

His work is present in the BESart public collection and in some other private collections.

FRANCISCO LACERDA

Francisco Lacerda is a Portuguese American writer/director raised in S. Miguel, Azores, Portugal and is currently based in Helsinki, Finland. He is one of the creators of the midnight screening sensation short films Dentes e Garras! and Dentes e Garras 2 which were both nominated for a Méliès Award on MOTELX and were consequentlry acquired by Troma Entertainment for distribution. In 2017, Francisco co-wrote and co-directed with Francisco Lopes the short film Freelancer, which proved to be a success with audiences worldwide and won Best Short Film at the 2018 Horrorvision Film Festival.

In the twelfth edition of Motelx Film Festival the term Azoresploitation was coined to describe Francisco’s works as a unique sub-genre of Portuguese exploitation/ splatter cinema made only in the Azores Islands and by local artists.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sound and Image from the arts university ESAD in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. He is a humongous fan of splatter films and 80’s Italian gore films.

Karaoke Night is his latest short film and has just begun its film festival circuit run, having had its world premiere at the Frightening Ass Film Festival, and recently had its North American Premiere at the prestigious 2020 Slamdance film festival.

VINCENT MOON & PRISCILLA TELMON 

Priscilla Telmon & Vincent Moon are a collaborating multidisciplinary artist duo working as independent filmmakers and sound-explorers. Together they produce ethnographic experimental films and music recordings, creative direction and curation, based on material collected from their numerous travels.

Vincent Moon is an independent filmmaker and sound explorer from Paris. Since 2009 he has been traveling the world making ethnographic-experimental films, recording traditional and sacred music, filming religious and shamanic rituals under the label Petites Planètes. His work now explores transcendent states using images and sounds, as well as the ritualistic aspects of societies and communities. Moon rose to prominence in the mid-2000s as the main director of La Blogothèque’s Take Away Shows. The web-based project of recording musicians and bands performing their work in unexpected locations led Moon to be dubbed ‘the re-inventor of the music video’ by the New York Times. Throughout his career, he has been strongly connected to musicians from all backgrounds and walks of life. He has documented everything from stadium rock music to a cappella village songs, from experimentations in electronics to trance rituals.

Priscilla Telmon is a visual artist, filmmaker, photographer and writer. She is a member of the Society of French Explorers, since 1999, she dedicated herself to long trips combining history and adventure, paying homage to the wisdom tradition and mystery of the cultures she visited. Her passion for the exploration of ancient cultures led Telmon to write books and articles, to direct films and documentaries and to collaborate with TV Channels and museums. Priscilla directed expeditions on the last nomads, sacred rituals and shamanism. She published ‘La Chevauchée des Steppes’, and ‘Carnets de Steppes’ (Ed. Robert Laffont), -on her 6 months’ adventure on horseback from Kazakhstan to the Aral Sea. She also published ‘Himalayas’ (Ed.Actes Sud) and directed the feature film ‘Voyage au Tibet Interdit’ (MK2) on her ultimate expedition, alone, by foot through the Himalayas during 7 months, following the steps of French explorer Alexandra David Neel.

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CURATORS BIOGRAPHIES

ANTÓNIO PEDRO LOPES

António Pedro Lopes (Ponta Delgada, 1981). He is the co-artistic director of Tremor, a music and art festival that takes place on São Miguel island, Azores, since 2014, in a joint creation with Yuzin and Lovers & Lollypops. In 2019, he co-founds and signs the curatorship of FABRIC – an art festival, in the city of Fall River, in the United States.

As a dance and theater artist, he has performed all over the country, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas in shows, residencies and workshops, having collaborated, among other artists, with Jérôme Bel, João Fiadeiro, Marco Berrettini and Gustavo Ciríaco.

As a curator and cultural agitator, he has directed artistic festivals and events in Portugal and Europe, in the fields of contemporary dance, performing arts and music, always driven by affection, the building of a community, collaboration, the possibility of experimentation and the creation of space for the other. His projects were hosted by institutions such as the National Theater of São João, Culturgest, Pradillo Theater, La Cité Internationale Theater, Arquipélago – Contemporary Arts Centre, among others.

He works with the artist and collector Raquel André in the tetralogy “People’s Collection”, signing the co-creation, artistic direction and communication of all projects and their transformations into books, shows, exhibitions, workshops and conferences, as well as their presentation and circulation around the world.

He is a consultant for communication and artistic direction for artists, festivals and cultural associations. He has a degree in Theater from the University of Évora and a diploma in choreography from Fórum Dança.

JOAQUIM DURÃES

With over a decade of experience in the music scene both nationally and internationally, he is a melophile who knows intimately what is behind the music industry, working on a daily basis in the roles of artistic director, manager, agent, producer and programmer. In 2005, after participating in the independent circuit of Barcelona, he returned to Portugal to emulate what he experienced in the Catalan capital. Thus was born Lovers & Lollypops, a multifaceted editorial project that has a prominent place in the Portuguese music scene for its artistic scope and its incessant search for new ideas and languages. As co-director of Lovers & Lollypops, its editorial activity stands out with over a hundred records edited and the festivals Milhões de Festa and Tremor, both undeniable references in the national independent activity.

LUÍS BANREZES

Born in Macedo de Cavaleiros. After living and graduating in Oporto, he moved to the Azores in 2008. In São Miguel island, he has been a true agitator and programmer of several cultural spaces. In 2010, he founded the Yuzin Agenda Cultural “Portugal”, an independent, innovating and free agenda of the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria. In 2012, at the invitation of RDP, he was part of the founding team of Antena 3 “Açores”, and for 2 and a half years he worked as a radioman in the author show Caravana Beat. In 2014, he left for southern Spain and led the Iberian project Yuzin Agenda Cultural, an agenda distributed in the cities of Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Granada, Leon, Ponta Delgada and in the island of Santa Maria. In 2015, he returned to the Azores and, at the invitation of the Regional Government of the Azores, he integrated the department of the Regional Centre for Handicrafts to develop artist-in-residence projects. He currently works as a consultant, curator, programmer and cultural agent. He is one of the founders of Tremor Festival and director of the projects: Ponta Delgada para Curiosos, Santa Maria para Curiosos and La Bamba Record Store.

MÁRCIO LARANJEIRA

Born in Barcelos and with an academic background that begins in Bragança at IPB, he attended Chelsea School of Art and Design and now continues at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra with a Master’s Degree in Artistic Studies, Márcio Laranjeira is part of Lovers & Lollypops since 2009 being among those responsible for the programming, design and management of the festivals Milhões de Festa and Tremor, events such as the 20XXVINTE, and a series of collaborations with institutions such as Casa da Música, CCB, Zé dos Bois Gallery, Municipality of Oporto, Salão Brazil, among others. Besides his path as a programmer, he is also an agent for artists from the Lovers & Lollypops catalog, like Killimanjaro, Cave Story or Duquesa. In parallel to this activity, he has been a guest lecturer in the Postgraduate Program in Music Industry Management since 2018, being responsible for the course units of Artistic Career Management and Event Management and Production.

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