The intersections between autobiography and fiction appear as the central axis of the group show Crash, hosted within the Zip'Up program. At the invitation of curator Fernanda Medeiros and artist Romy Pocztaruk, emerging artists Camila Svenson, Enantios Dromos, Henrique Fagundes and Pedro Ferreira occupy the upper floor of the Zipper Gallery with works that depart from the artists' own universes in order to create fictional narratives with elements of their own visual and affective repertoires.
On the opening day of the exhibition – June 15 –, the artist Henrique Fagundes will present the performance Cinema Transcendental. The work is a video based on sound and visual collages, controlled and performed live: an audio-visual painting that is constructed through layers of information superimposed on a fissured and dense narrative, formed by sequences of videos taken from the Internet, remixed and mixed with themes of geometric figures from raves with the sounds of gunshots.
On the other hand, Camila Svenson presents the photography and video series Earth that ends (2019). This is a fictional city, conceived and revisited by the artist. "I make sporadic expeditions to this unnamed territory, inventing a waiting space and false lull, where the only existing clock inhabits the dark room of a wooded house. A rope watch, which insistently plays the 12 gongs ever since it knows it's a clock – insisting on an obsolete activity. Something is wrong but nobody can explain what it is," writes the artist about her series. Pedro Ferreira exhibits a photographic series that articulates itself in the power of abstract and subconscious visual discourse, tracing new guidelines for out-dated technologies in his search. And, finally, Enantios Dromos shows photographs and VHS videos that reflect on the existential re-signification of the body through performances.
The group show Crash is on until August 3.
Conceived in 2011, one year after the creation of the Zipper Gallery, the Zip'Up program is an experimental project aimed at hosting new artists, emerging names not yet represented by galleries in São Paulo. The objective is to maintain an openness to various investigations and approaches, as well as to allow the exchange of experiences between artists, independent curators and the public, giving visibility to imminent or maturing talents. Through a permanent process, Zipper receives, selects, guides and hosts exhibition projects, which, over the last six years, totals more than forty exhibitions and about 60 artists and 20 curators who occupied the gallery's upper room.
About the curators
Romy Pocztaruk (Porto Alegre, 1983) deals with simulations, reflecting on the position from which the artist interacts with different places and with the relationships between multiple fields and disciplines with art. Having won several awards her work is present in collections such as Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Museu de Arte do Rio. Romy participated in the 31st São Paulo Biennial with the series The Last Adventure, in which the artist investigates remnant material and symbolic vestiges of the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, a pharaonic, utopian and arrogant project, relegated to neglect and oblivion. Main solo shows: Euclidian Geology, Montevideo Photo Centre, Uruguay (2016); Science Fair, Centro Cultural São Paulo (2015). Main group shows: A Particular Collection: Contemporary art in the Pinacoteca collection, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo (2015); Télon de Fondo, Backroom Caracas, Venezuela (2015); BRICS, Oi Futuro, Rio de Janeiro (2014); POROROCA, Museum de Arte do Rio de Janeiro (2014); 9th Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre (2013); Region 0, The Latino Video Art Festival of New York, New York (2013); Invitation to travel: Rumos Itau Cultural, Itau Cultural, São Paulo (2012).
Fernanda Medeiros (Porto Alegre, 1989) is a curator, researcher and producer. Bachelor in History from PUCRS, she attends the lato sensu specialization in Curatorial Practices of the UFRGS Institute of Arts and a Bachelor of Art History from UFRGS. Fernanda is Assistant Curator and Operations Coordinator at the Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul (MARGS). She is part of the curatorial committee at Galeria Ecarta. She is the founder and publisher of Cactus Edições, an imprint for artists’ publications. She was the Producer at the Bronze Residency, at the video art festival C4NN3S and at the Folhagem Fair for publications. She was the coordinator of the Documentation and Research Centre at the Fundação Vera Chaves Barcellos (2012-2019) and founding partner, curator and producer at the Acervo Independente (2014 - 2017).