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Previous Exhibition

01/04/2017 - 31/07/2017

COLLABORATION FILIPA OLIVEIRA

Musa Paradisiaca with António Poppe

Musa paradisiaca’s work has always been collaborative. Bringing together persons linked by intellectual affinities, their temporary collaborations undertake a variety of forms. At the Quetzal Art Centre, they now present Teatro Máximo: a physical and mental space that places, for the first time, this pensive family in a real-time relationship, a direct dialogue with the objects produced by Musa paradisiaca. If the theatrical element was already evident in the practice of these artists, in this piece the universe of theatricality assumes a different form. Máximo refers to the idea of a space of possibilities, of the great possibility — thought of as a virtual potentiality — of uniting all the practice of this duo: all they have done and all they will ever do.

The first episode of this new series will take place in the Quetzal Art Centre. In two public sessions, the first on the opening day and the second on the May 20th, Musa paradisiaca will pay homage to the relation of affinity between them and António Poppe, a poet and visual artist with whom they started collaborating in 2014, in the film Ecstasy & Eden, for which Poppe produced the sound using a Foley process. In 2015, Musa paradisiaca and António Poppe recorded a series of original songs, inspired by his poetry. These songs have been present in their work since then.

The project room at the Quetzal Art Centre evokes the intimacy of this relationship and reveals it to the public. Musa paradisiaca offer their sculptures to António Poppe, as backdrop to his songs and poems, and Poppe offers his body and voice to the thoughts of Musa paradisiaca. One piece in particular, Come-corais(20152017), materializes this almost cannibalistic relation: one verse from one of Poppe’s poems was appropriated as the title of one of Musa paradisiaca’s sculptures; a sculpture that was transformed so that it could receive the coral that first inspired the poem, and now integrates the piece, the show, and the performance.

(Filipa Oliveira)

 

Filipa Oliveira
Filipa Oliveira worked as an independent curator and critic between 2002 and 2014. From January 2015, Filipa Oliveira took over the artist direction of the Fórum Eugénio de Almeida in Évora, where she has outlined a new mission for the art centre. She has curated many solo and group shows, collaborating with institutions such as Kettle’s Yard (UK), John Hansard Gallery (UK), Tate Modern (UK), Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian (France), Crac Alsace (France), Kunstverein Springhornhof (Germany), Mead Gallery (UK), Frieze Projects (UK), among others. She was guest curator in 2009-10 of the Portuguese Wave exhibition series at Threshold Artspace, Scotland, and in 2012 of the Satellite Project at Jeu de Paume, Paris, where she curated solo shows of Jimmy Robert, Tamar Guimarães, Rosa Barba and Filipa César. She was curatorial assistant of the 28th São Paulo Biennial. Filipa Oliveira has an extensive list of published essays in catalogues and publications and currently writes for Artforum.

Musa paradisiaca 
Starting in 2010, Musa paradisiaca is a collaboration between Eduardo Guerra (Lisbon, 1986) and Miguel Ferrão (Lisbon, 1986). They have been presenting their work in many shows, sessions, and presentations, both in Portugal and abroad. Among their solo exhibitions, stand out: Casa-animal, BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts (Lisbon, Portugal, 2017); Man with really soft hands, Galeria Múrias Centeno (Lisbon, Portugal, 2017); Masters of Velocity, Dan Gunn Gallery, (Berlin, Germany, 2016); Alma-Bluco, CRAC Alsace (Altkirch, France, 2015). Among their group shows, stand out: Conversas: Arte Portuguesa Recente na Colecção de Serralves, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum (Porto, Portugal, 2016); Objectos Estranhos: Ensaio de Proto-escultura, Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (Guimarães, Portugal, 2016); The Coming Museum, Fórum Eugénio de Almeida (Évora, Portugal, 2015); Le lynx ne connaît pas de frontières, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard (Paris, France, 2015). And the following performances: Cantina-Máquina, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum (Porto, Portugal, 2015); Como se apanha um fugitivo — Mostra de objectos conversáveis, CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, Portugal, 2013); and Tarefas impossíveis (O Criado do Cenáculo), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France, 2013).

António Poppe
António Poppe was born in 1968, in Lisbon, and studied at Ar.Co (Arts and Visual Communication Centre). He participated in several exchanges with the Royal College of Art, in London, and with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In this last school, he concluded his Master studies in Performance Art and Cinema. In 2000, Assírio & Alvim published his drawing and poetry book Torre de Juan Abad. The book launch was accompanied by an exhibition of works by the author. In 2012, he put forth his book Livro da Luz, a poem-meditation-drawing-song, published by Documenta. In 2015, Douda Correria publishes his poem medicin. He currently does poetry readings, exhibitions, and teaches drawing and meditation.

 

More information: read the publication Collaboration I, II, III, VI.