Other Events
Summer Garden 2020

First Flight Lesson + The Best Possible World

Gustavo Sumpta

Event Slider

Before you access our venue, please read the access conditions.

First Flight Lesson. Poor people don’t have metaphysics
Gustavo Sumpta

This project was born in 2007 during the Case Study supervised by João Fiadeiro at Atelier Re.al, and its research goal was the investigation on the Real Time Composition Method.

Here, a small tribute is paid to the masters of silent cinema, while testing the material’s resistance.

The Best Possible World.
Gustavo Sumpta

Starting from the idea that a three-dimensional shape is born from a two-dimensional drawing, we try to understand here how long a single action can last.

Firstly, the vowels are made and only then the consonants; so this wordless text is born.

This project debuted at ZDB in 2003 in the context of the “Propostas para quem Dança” [“Proposals for those who Dance”] program.

Gustavo Sumpta. Luanda 1970. Lives and works in Lisbon. Performer, visual artist and film actor.

He attended the 1st year of the History course at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. The Professional Ballet Interpreter Course at the Balleteatro, Porto, Portugal.

He worked as an interpreter and author with choreographer João Fiadeiro in the pieces “Existence”, in 2002, and “Where does the light go when it goes out”, but also “Case Study”, Re al, in 2006.

He was a Professor at the Ar.Co Sculpture department, in Lisbon, and taught the Sculpture Course from 2009 to 2013. In 2017 he participated in Anozero’17 biennale “Curar e Reparar”, in Coimbra, where his performance “Levantar o Mundo” premiered, the same year as his solo exhibition ”Die Zunge na den Gaumen nähen”, at Rosalux - The Berlin-based art space, Berlin, Germany.

In 2015 he showed “Pó de Lampada” at Festival Turbine Hall, Giswel, Switzerland.

“Comboio Fantasma”, a one time performance at Calçada do Combro, Lisbon, Portugal, in 2014.

In 2013 he participated in the group exhibitions “A Natureza ri da Cultura”, Museu da Luz, Alqueva, Portugal and “O Fim da Violência”, Museu Bernardo, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal.

In 2012 he made a sculpture for the public space “Sai da unhas” at Casa Independente, Largo do Intendente, Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2010, he made the one time presentation of the performance “A raiz da fruta”, Festival “Point d’impact”, Genève, Switzerland.

In 2009, he participated in the Gyumri Biennial, Gyumri Ethnographic Museum, Armenia.

2008 “Assim não vais longe” premieres in the context of the Cycle of performances presented at Atelier Re.al, from which all the works have been a part of since 2004.

In 2007 he participated in the EDP New Artists Award, Central do Freixo, Porto,

Portugal. In 2005 he presented the performance “Vitória, vitória, acabou-se a história”, Toxic, Fundição de Oeiras, Portugal. And also Lab 11 in 2005 at Atelier RE.AL.

He worked as a theater actor in the Artistas Unidos company, in “BAAL” and “O Navio dos Negros” with staging by Jorge Silva Melo.

In cinema, he worked with José Nascimento, Bem Rivers and Gabriel Abrantes, João Botelho, Sebastião Salgado, Sandro Aguilar, Teresa Prata, Pedro Costa and Vasco Saltão.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and collective preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us at [email protected].