In this first part of the “Latent Echoes” video cycle, we propose a dialogue between Ouve-me and Left (L)overs, works which expose tensions between two bodies: a ghostly mute female body; and a male body on its back, both solid and ethereal, struggling to leave something behind. Tapping his hands on his own shoulders, the man creates a constant, echoing rhythm like the sound of a bullet. The release of the movement leaves a mark from the dust on his hands that is suspended in the air.

The bodies in this dialogue struggle: in Ouve-me, the struggle is that of a body seeking to break through the limits of a membrane-barrier circumscribing it and of a voice demanding to be heard; in Left (L)overs it is the tension of the body abandoned and a materiality destined to become particles in the air. 

Curators: Gulbenkian 15-25 IMAGINA

Open item in modal

Open item in modal

COMPLETE CYCLE

04 May– 30 May 2022

body body body

Helena Almeida, Ouve-me, 1979

Rui Calçada Bastos, Left (L)over, 2004

01 Jun – 04 Jul 2022

presence presence presence

Graham Gussin, Hotel Reverb, 2018

Manon de Boer, The Untroubled Mind, 2018

06 Jul – 01 Aug 2022

suspension suspension suspension

Miguel Soares, H2O, 2004

03 Aug – 05 Sep 2022

throbbing throbbing throbbing

Miguel Soares, Whitestar, 2009

CYCLE: LATENT ECHOES

The ‘Latent Echoes’ video cycle proposes a re-reading of a set of videos from the CAM Collection, developing a narrative around the progressive disappearance of human presence and the coexistence of their vestiges with other forms of life, culminating in dematerialisation and spatial abstraction. An inevitable disappearance that is at once both death and transformation – like the ouroboros, the dragon-snake consuming its own tail and symbolising the eternal cycle of renewal of life. In this narrative we hear echoes of the constant passage from one form to another, establishing, in the repetition, four parts we call ‘body body body’, ‘presence presence presence’ ‘suspension suspension suspension’, and ‘throbbing throbbing throbbing’.

The cycle begins with body body body, a dialogue between the works Ouve-me [Hear me] (1979) by artist Helena Almeida and Left (L)overs (2004) by artist Rui Calçada Bastos. It is an encounter between a body from the front which, in a self-imposed silence, challenges the three-dimensionality of the screen’s membrane, and a body from behind which, rhythmically, emits sounds as it is hit, releasing what remains of a presence, now reduced to dust particles suspended in the air.

In the second part, presence presence presence, we abandon the materiality of the body to enter abandoned and altered spaces, inhabited by the remains of a presence. In Hotel Reverb (2018), by artist Graham Gussin, an abandoned hotel is revived by the repetitive throwing of a ball, reminding us of an experience of playing, contrasting with the next video: in Untroubled Mind (2016), artist Manon de Boer films a domestic and childish space, in which a presence (that we do not see) reorganises and attributes new meanings to everyday objects, in the manner of ready-made.

Objects move to a new plane in suspension suspension suspension: in H2O (2004), by artist Miguel Soares, we see falling objects that form an archive of debris in which we can read a recent story of humanity and that coexist with a living ecosystem – not without a certain irony. Here we also move into the world of animation, establishing the bridge to the final part.

From abyssal depths to the total dematerialisation of human presence, White Star (2009), also by Miguel Soares, has its own echo: it is throbbing throbbing throbbing, an abstraction where sound and image are a single entity.

CURATORS

CAM IN MOTION

CAM in Motion is an ‘outdoor’ programme that brings together a series of site-specific interventions by artists and exhibitions with works from the Collection in different spaces in the city of Lisbon and its surroundings.