MENU DEGUSTAZIONE

After different attempts, I finally achieved to book my place at “Menu Degustazione”, the exhibition by Norma Santori, that guides you through a sensorial experience based on food and society.

I was in Milan, at Hangar Bicocca, the magnificent and huge space created by Pirelli in 2014.

(Exhibition tickets on Hangar Bicocca website, booking open only every 1st of the month).

The artist, Norma Santori was unknown to me until last year, when, while researching information for my project about haute cuisine, I bumped into her website.

Apparently gentle and fragile, Norma is a talented artist with a strong and powerful vision.

“One day, while I was eating an unripe persimmon I was realizing that this strange sensation on my tongue, very difficult to explain in words, was perfectly representing how I often feel.

One of the images appearing in my mind while thinking about how sad we became, is always all this “social media life” where everyone is happy eating their perfect food.

That’s where my work is coming from.”

(Norma Santori on her work “Menu Degustazione”)

The name itself says a lot about the experience: it will be like a meal in a starred restaurant when you order a “menu degustazione”: you don’t know what you will eat, there will be a personal waitress, comforting at times but also intrusive and you will be guided by the “filter” of a chef (here an artist) and his own vision.

When I enter the exhibition the waitress asks me to leave my bag and my coat at the entrance (no photos or distractions allowed; I will add some drawings). 

We start in a dark, narrow room where the only source of light is coming from a led strip on the floor. 

We are here, waiting. She is looking at me. 

Five minutes passed by, and now she gently inserts a jelly in my mouth with a very mechanical and clerical gesture.

I am eating this jelly and my salivary glands are inflated. I can’t really tell what is in it, but for sure it is very sour.

The mastication lasts just some seconds but it’s a very strong feeling. I am still trying to go back to my normal face. 

She is bringing me to another room. This time there is light. It’s low but present.

I can see some kind of orange tagliatelle hanging from the ceiling.

There is a countdown and when it finishes I can start eating.

I am regretting it. These tagliatelle, so nice to see, are really indescribable.

If the artist wanted to recreate the sensation of an “unripe persimmon” on the tongue, well: achieved.

It very difficult to finish this step.

Tagliatelle are really causing me discomfort.

Before entering the third room I’m already feeling uncomfortable with the smell.

It’s a nice smell but too powerful.

Once inside, I’m walking in a hallway and by my sides, there are fountains pouring a soft and creamy soup. I can see everything because there’s light in this room.

The waitress stays next to me and she is holding a big spoon giving me instructions.

She is explaining that this is going to be a little painful because it’s a Sichuan-pepper hot soup.

I immediately understand why she is defining it “painful”: I remember Sichuan pepper from my days in China.

Just a few minutes after eating the soup my mouth is all anesthetized.

I’m now alone in a little room, resting from this and waiting for my palate to come back to normality.

Twenty minutes later my palate is still on flame but the waitress comes and takes me to the final part of the exhibition: an entire wall of lollipops.

This is the bitter pill. “Il boccone amaro”.

I pick one with a strong dandelion flavor, and she is escorting me at the exit.

I’m walking away with my lollipop thinking that it really was a bitter pill.

When some of my friends ask me about contemporary art and a way to understand it, I usually reply that if art is called “contemporary” is because it’s happening just now, and its part of our society.  

Understanding it means understanding the era we are.

“Menù Degustazione” is pure awareness.

You start from the dark and you walk into the light with the waitress, who is your guide and almost has the function of a conscience: always at your side holding your hands and bothering you at times but leaving you alone in the most difficult moment.

A reality, where what it seems is not what it is: the first impression can deceive you.

Your eyes are experiencing an almost fairy reality but your taste is feeling terrible.

The sour entrance, like if she wants to let us know that she’s very acid against society; her persimmon tagliatelle leaving this “fur sensation” on the tongue like if we had mince words to say; the Sichuan-pepper soup, that numbs everyone leaving us unable to talk and the bitter final, where it’s clear that the artist is keeping this feeling on and on.

Using a starred restaurant mode of action: creating a path, being guided throughout it, let the user unaware of what’s happening. 

Despite the fact that no one is tricking you in a starred restaurant, isn’t it the same mode of action of our society?

One Two Three Swing!

O Turbine Hall é possivelmente o espaço expositivo, dedicado à arte contemporânea, com maior visibilidade nos dias de hoje. Todos os anos, um artista (ou grupo) é escolhido para intervencionar o espaço. No ano de 2017, calhou ao grupo Superflex, três artistas dinamarqueses conhecidos por envolverem activamente o espectador nos seus projectos. 

Com One Two Three Swing, os artistas instalaram por todo o espaço do Turbine Hall uma série de baloiços que, na sua maioria, funcionam a três pessoas, alastrando por todo o espaço uma espécie de estrutura contínua, uma linha vermelha que se prolonga e se transforma através da "energia colectiva" representada pelos diversos baloiços em movimento. Na entrada principal, deparamo-nos com este pêndulo gigante, uma bola de aço que se move de um lado para o outro como se se alimentasse da energia gerada pela experimentação de grupo, como a bateria que alimenta um relógio. Por baixo deste pêndulo, está uma carpete multicor que abre espaço para a contemplação de tal movimento contínuo.

"It is like restarting the engine of the Turbine Hall, trough collective energy" (Superflex) 

Este projecto, claramente inspirado não só pela antiga fábrica de electricidade (agora Tate Modern) mas também por projectos semelhantes criados pelo melo mesmo trio como Superkilen Park, pareceu-me por uma lado cumprir o seu objectivo, mas por outro dá a ideia de fracassar em "agarrar" este enorme espaço. 

One Two Three Swing, é uma ideia bastante interessante visto que pretende instigar a uma acção, pretende criar uma energia colectiva a partir das diversas interacções ali criadas; mas, enquanto projecto artístico, parece faltar algo. O espaço não é, definitivamente, um factor crucial para que a obra funcione, poderia funcionar (com diferente escala) em qualquer outro lugar. E, tendo em conta a interactividade inerente na instalação, ela parece aludir mais a um playground onde todos são convidados a "brincar", do que a uma experiência que eleve o espírito social a objecto artístico, e que de facto instigue a uma mudança no indivíduo enquanto grupo social. É certo que deste espaço, pelo seu mediatismo, muitas vezes se esperam instalações que alimentem o mercado da arte em si ao invés de aspirarem ao verdadeiro valor artístico, mas ainda assim fiquei desiludido com o produto final, apesar de me ter divertido.

1000 imagens - uma palavra vale mais do que mil imagens

No dia 29 de novembro de 2018 passei pela Galeria Cristina Guerra em Lisboa para a inauguração da exposição intitulada 1000 imagens — uma palavra vale mais do que mil imagens. Analisarei a curadoria da exposição, a situação de inauguração e os trabalhos dos artistas expostos.

Esta exposição, com a curadoria de Alexandre Melo, chamou-me à atenção pelo seu nome. A frase "uma palavra vale mais que mil imagens" é uma alusão ao ditado popular "uma imagem vale mais do que mil palavras". Numa pesquisa rápida pela internet descobrimos que a expressão não é muito antiga, e poderá datar do início do século XX. O título pode facilmente ser considerado cliché, ou uma brincadeira demasiado simples.

"A imagem, as imagens, parecem ser as indiscutíveis vencedoras do cada vez mais veloz concurso das transformações culturais ocorridas ao longo do último século. Da celebração da emergência e generalização da circulação global das imagens de novo tipo ( fotografia, cinema, televisão, digital ) passámos, na viragem do século, à constatação da afirmação e triunfo do império das imagens. Ao mesmo tempo, como decorre da natureza contraditória de todos os processos de transformação cultural, foram começando a subir de tom as denúncias da invasão por um excesso de imagens e os alertas para o perigo do afogamento dos significados e sentidos no pântano de uma infinidade de imagens tornadas cada vez mais irrelevantes pelo volume e velocidade da sua propagação epidémica. O fenómeno vem-se tornando evidente na crescente agitação das redes anti-sociais que alimentam a grande pocilga comunicacional digital ; e cuja vocação predadora e criminal só agora começa a ser discutida. E as palavras ?" 

(Alexandre Melo, excerto da folha de sala)

O curador na sua folha de sala parece-me cair num erro. Distancia a palavra de uma imagem. Na minha opinião qualquer palavra é uma imagem, em todas as suas possíveis maneiras de representar. Qualitativamente, considerei a curadoria da exposição circunstancial.

Em relação à situação de inauguração considero o seguinte. Compreendo que uma inauguração é um momento em que as pessoas se encontram para conviver. No entanto, acho que o tema de conversa deverá ser o da exposição ou algo relacionado. Pelo que ia ouvindo não se cria um ambiente em que o foco é o trabalho ou o artista, mas sim outros assuntos porventura mais superficiais e que poderiam muito bem ser discutidos noutro contexto.

VASCO ARAÚJO | JOHN BALDESSARI | ROBERT BARRY | FILIPA CÉSAR | JIMMIE DURHAM | GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON | HORÁCIO FRUTUOSO | ROBERT GOBER | DOUGLAS GORDON | RENÉE GREEN | DEREK JARMAN | JOSEPH KOSUTH | JOÃO CÉSAR MONTEIRO | JONATHAN MONK | MATT MULLICAN | JOÃO ONOFRE | RAYMOND PETTIBON | PRATCHAYA PHINTHONG | ROSÂNGELA RENNÓ | ED RUSCHA | JULIÃO SARMENTO | WANTANEE SIRIPATTANANUNTAKUL | JOÃO PEDRO VALE + NUNO ALEXANDRE FERREIRA | LAWRENCE WEINER | YONAMINE 

(lista de artistas expostos)

Concluindo, os artistas expostos, considerando ser uma exposição de uma galeria em Lisboa, achei serem de extrema qualidade. De uma maneira geral gostei de ver artistas de renome internacional, peças que conhecia mas nunca tinha visto ao vivo. Achei sui generis a pertinência desta exposição para a minha pesquisa pessoal e académica, quase como se fosse uma exposição feita para mim. 

A non-dystopian future

At the occasion of the third edition of the biennial Art Cycles project, part of the patronage agreement between the MNAC Museu do Chiado and the group SONAE, that is dedicated to the promotion of creativity and innovation, the Portuguese artist Miguel Soares has been invited to present an original exhibition entitled LUZAZUL. Through 3D rendered images, Soares has developed a specific vision of the near future of society : By creating a superior artificial intelligence, humans finally managed to free themselves from their duties. The exhibition, curated by Adelaide Ginga, is open until the 24/02/2019.

Miguel Soares graduated in photography and equipment design in 1995 at the faculty of fine arts in Lisbon. At the end of the 1990s, while some feared the millennium bug and when the use of video was getting accessible to more people and especially to young artists, Soares began to use 3D rendering softwares that allow him to build his own exclusive virtual environments and to animate it. At this time computer-made animation was extremely hard due to the limited capacities of the hardware, but now this technology is capable of results beyond our imagination. For Soares, music video is the ideal form to display his images and his animations are often, as in LUZAZUL, accompanied by his own electronic music compositions. Miguel Soares’ reflection concentrates on the real versus the virtual world and his artistic production is deeply inspired by the various possibilities regarding the future of humanity, from popular sci-fi culture to the most obscure sect beliefs.

For this exhibition the artist focuses on technological singularity, a theory defended by, among others, Ray Kurzweil who is the actual director of engineering at Google. According to this theory, the invention of an artificial intelligence (AI) capable of upgrading itself or to create another more intelligent AI would lead to a certain explosion of intelligence. Machines would become super-intelligences able to progress at a speed incomprehensible for the human brain. Technological singularity would definitely change human life in unpredictable ways and redefine the role of humanity on earth. This theory raises strongly animated debates, as much about its plausibility as about if it could save or end humanity.
Miguel Soares chose to cross the idea of technological singularity with the Three ages of Man, a prophecy written 800 years ago by Joachim of Fiore. According to The XIIth century theologian, history is patterned on the Christian doctrine of Trinity and is divided into three epochs : the age of the father characterised by obedience to the rules of God, the age of the son with Man as the son of God and the age of the holy spirit when mankind, by coming in direct contact with God, reaches total freedom and universal love. The creation of a superior AI could be the key for humans to access god level and the final age of the holy spirit.

The exhibition is divided into three parts (a 5 screens video installation and two projected videos), the three ages of a human-shaped headless robot created by the artist. Through the first rooms we watch it being assembled in an automatic factory, as a commodity. Then it’s living a lonely and meaningless urban life (working on a laptop, taking public transportation etc…), probably what he was designed for.
The title of the exhibition LUZAZUL is an assemblage of the Portuguese words for light (luz) and blue (azul), it refers to the blue light produced by the screens we now use on a daily basis. Only a few humans remain in the artist’s proposition and most of them are wearing blue luminescent goggles. While the robot works, survivors are depicted in complete inactivity, they don’t work and they don’t talk either. Reduced to bodies wandering in the urban space, their souls seem to be trapped in the void of the mysterious masks, in a parallel virtual space. At MNAC, visitors can recognise this cold, blue light which fills the galleries like fog and emanates from the screens as well as from the 13 light-boxes containing printed stills from the videos. As there is no text or on the walls and a minimal amount of furniture in the rooms, this particular light as well as the original music composed for the videos turn into guides for the visitors through this closed circuit exhibition that can be visited in both ways.

In the second part of the exhibition the robot comes to learn, slowly (by observing a donut found on the ground or by reading the book Frankenstein, for example), about himself and his environment. Later he will assemble his own robots from spare parts (for example a used washing machine) found in his garage. Knowledge will lead the robots to protest for their rights so they design posters and go down to the streets to protest, as humans did years before. In the third and last part, after becoming fully aware of themselves, the robots find a way to extract, without any effort, an enigmatic mirror matter from humans’ cars. Then the extracted matter (which seems to have its own intelligence) flies away and transforms itself into donut-shaped, closed and autonomous cities, floating in the sky and away from humans.
The word LUZAZUL is a palindrome, wether it is read from left to right or from right to left it keeps the same order of letters, as if there was a mirror placed at the middle of the word. Mirrors, as well as the donut shape which is very present in the exhibition, refer to a round trip movement. The movement of a total revolution in which humans reached contact with god by creating a superior intelligence, freeing themselves from any duty, a movement maintained by the AI which comes to the same end by the same ways, placing humanity more and more aside.

As it is still a rare opportunity, it is a real pleasure to watch 3D rendered images displayed in a major art institution. Especially when these are addressing a debate as important and exciting as our near future and, in this case the controversial theory of technological singularity. Miguel Soares allows the visitors of MNAC to discover a big issue of our time that deserves more interest from the public and his choice to produce computer made content in order to express about this subject is coherent.
In the official text written by the curator, the world depicted in the LUZAZUL videos is presented as a « non-dystopian future ». It is non-dystopian in a sense that human activities (for example reading, building things or protesting) are perpetuated in a way that is similar to the way it is today. But these remains of humanity are then reserved to robots while humans are cut from their natural environment, stuck in a virtual space hidden behind glasses.
Miguel Soares’ anticipation is loyal to the theories from which he chose to draw inspiration as these theories have been presented by their writers and advocates, he translates them through his 3D images in a simple, almost naïve, narration. This exhibition shows only one side of technological singularity, it doesn’t take into account the unpredictable aspect of an event whose forms and consequences are way beyond what can be imagined and it keeps aside the fundamental human needs that should be served in priority by intelligence. As if, by hiding this side of the issue, he chose to give it back to his visitors’ own reflexion.