CANÇÃO NOVAANDRÉ GUEDES with DIOGO ALVIM
The Museum as Performance
Performance
CANÇÃO NOVA (2023), 20’
The artistic practice of André Guedes (Lisbon, 1971) spans from visual to performing arts. His works, including installations, performances, scenography and editorial projects, are built – in the wake of conceptual art from the 1960s-70s – based on extensive documentary research. This is the case of "Canção nova", the project created specifically for the present edition of The Museum as Performance. Designed for the museum's auditorium, the work plays with spectators' expectations – starting with proposing new ways of accessing the space and occupying it –, at the same time as proposing relationships between references apparently as disparate as work songs, agricultural implements and images from the rehearsal of a play at the Teatro Aberto (Lisbon) yet to inaugurate. What brings these references together are notions of collective work: the choir that sings rural work songs from the Ribatejo area, the group of performers who perform actions (namely manipulating objects on stage and pulling some chairs from the audience), photographs of the rehearsal of a play ("The Caucasian Chalk Circle", by Bertolt Brecht – performed by João Lourenço and chosen to inaugurate Teatro Aberto in 1976), talks about a group effort, in which the unit (the individual) serves the whole, a common goal. Let's say that, and this is a constant feature in André Guedes' artistic practice, this "Canção nova" is constituted “as a reflection on human activity in the conception of space and social and political organizations”.
Related
André Guedes (Lisbon, 1971) has a degree in Architecture from the FA/ FA/Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. He attended postgraduate studies in Space Anthropology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He participated in several creative residency programs, namely: Gasworks (London, 2011), Nosadella.due (Bologna, 2007), Le Pavillon / Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2004/2005), Fondazione Pistoletto/Cittadellarte (Biella, 2003). In 2007 he received the União Latina Visual Arts Award.
Among the exhibitions and individual performances, the following stand out: Formas Antigas, Novas Circunstâncias, Galeria Vera Cortês, Lisbon (2019); Pleasure Gardens, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2011/2012); Hoxe comezamos a falar, Colexio de Fonseca, Santiago de Compostela (2011); L'argent, Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris (2010); The Losts, The Bluecoat, Liverpool (2009); AIROTIV, Vitória, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitória-Gasteiz, Spain (2009); Better Days, For These Days (2008), Galeria Lisboa 20; Informações/Information (2007), Chiado 8, Lisbon; Better Days (2007), Museo Internazionale della Musica; O jardim e o casino, a praia e a piscina (2005), Galeria Lisboa 20, Lisbon; Outras árvores, outro interruptor, outro fumador e uma peça preparada (2004/2005), Museu de Serralves, Porto; Slow Motion (2003), ESTGAD, Caldas da Rainha.
The group exhibitions include: A Sexta Parte do Mundo, Museu do Neo-Realismo, Vila Franca de Xira (2017); Play, Galeria Quadrum, Lisbon (2011); I'm not here. An exhibition without Francis Alys, De Appel, Amsterdam (2010); Practicing Memory, Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy (2010); World Question Centre, 2nd Athens Biennial (2009); The Clearing, Prague Triennale (2008); El Medio Es El Museo (2008), Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastián; Disarming Matter (2008), Dunkers Kulturhus, Helsingborg, Sweden; União Latina Visual Arts Prize, Culturgest, Lisbon (2007); Por Entre as Linhas, Museu das Comunicações, Lisbon (2007); La Ciudad Interpretada (2006), Santiago de Compostela; The Final Cut (2005), Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Otras Alternativas (2003), MARCO, Vigo; Partituras e Paisagens (2002), Festival Danças na Cidade / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; “Festival Brrr Live Art” (2001), Porto.
He created the spatial design of the following choreographic works: Hors Sujet Ou Le Bel Ici (2007) by Martine Pisani; como rebolar alegremente sobre um vazio interior (2001) by Vera Mantero for Ballet Gulbenkian; Notas para um espetáculo invisível (2000) by Miguel Pereira; Contract with the skin (2000) by Paulo Henrique. He designed several scenic projects solo or in collaboration with Miguel Loureiro and the Cão Solteiro theater company.
He was the guest curator of the 2020 edition of Cumplicidades International Dance Festival.
The artist lives and works in Lisbon.