The solo exhibition “Cifra”, by Dayana Lucas, and the collective exhibition “Laboratório de Verão 2023”, promoted by CIAJG and GNration, which includes works by Bárbara Fonte, Cláudia Cibrão, Guache, Lucas Carneiro and Manuel Costa, mark the opening from CIAJG/International Center for the Arts José de Guimarães. Scheduled for this Saturday, September 30th, starting at 5pm, the inaugural program is punctuated by music and performance, with the aim of providing a total experience between the various arts that coexist in this “museum with worlds inside”.
According to Marta Mestre, artistic director of the CIAJG, “the openings are a ritual of encounter between artists, the public and the museum collection, a moment in which we renew the invitation to discover and stay. As arts from different parts of the world – Africa, Central America and China –, together with the work of the artist-collector José de Guimarães They are the axis and the breath of this place, our programming wants to bring people together, create sensitivities and critical senses”.
The inaugurations of the CIAJG thus become a mandatory stopover in Guimarães. With free entry, the afternoon that marks the start of the new exhibitions has a special program, which includes several moments of artistic enjoyment.
After the opening of the exhibitions (5pm), we will be able to absorb (at 6pm) the words and drawings of “Prova de Vida”, a book by Dayana Lucas published by Orinoco, which acts as a trigger for a reading of Vuduvum Vadavã, alter ego by Marta Ângela (half of Von Calhau!), a multidisciplinary artist with an extensive practice in manipulating signs through sound, words and visual artefacts. Vuduvum Vadavã will work directly in the “Cifra” exhibition space.
Soon after, at 6:30 pm, the experimental music duo Guache (Luciana Melo and Gil Fortes), from Rio de Janeiro, based in Braga, composes a sound environment in dialogue with the museum space, entitled “Improvisation in two ways”, which explores the interaction with chance, untempered melodies, non-verbal vocal performativity , texture and noise.
At 7pm, Chima Isaaro, who recently had an enthusiastic performance at MEO Kalorama, stars in a DJ set session. Chima Isaaro is known for her melodic crossings that weave techno, house, disco, soul, beat, jazz and much more, exploring "black-rooted" cadences. Integrating dance mixes that have won devotees everywhere, Chima Isaaro supports this expansive energy with a universal invitation: you can come, if you know how to dance. Music and dance are accompanied by a tasting moment, at the end of the afternoon, created by Cantina CAAA (André Pinto and Ane Delazzeri), inspired by the exhibitions.
Regarding the exhibitions that are starting, namely “Cifra”, by Dayana Lucas, says Marta Mestre, artistic director of the CIAJG and curator of the exhibition: “Drawing is a thinking tool for many artists. Drawing is creating worlds, from the 'alphabets' of José de Guimarães” to the (in)visible lines in Dayana Lucas. We want to pursue this programmatic line, enabling cross-readings of the creation of contemporary artists from different generations”.
“Cifra”, by Dayana Lucas, is the exhibition that occupies the ground floor of the museum, starting on September 30th. Curated by Marta Mestre, “Cifra” presents a set of creations by artist Dayana Lucas who was born in Caracas (Venezuela) in 1987 and who lives and works in Porto, recently named finalist for the 2023 FLAD/Fundação Luso drawing prize -American for Development. A CIAJG and ArtWorks co-production, “Cifra” presents a selection of the artist's recent works, including those carried out in the artistic residency program No Entulho (ArtWorks), which allows experimentation with different materials, in a sustainable and collaborative logic, A The exhibition is conceived under the sign of opacity and transparency, of the visible and the invisible, in a rhythm of different materials, techniques and supports, which combine to give shape to the artist's imagination.
Co-founder of Oficina Arara between 2010-2017, member of the Soopa collective and founder of Orinoco, publisher of books and other artist editions, Dayana Lucas has been persistently developing practical research in the area of drawing and sculpture: “healing actions and bridges between the interior (body and psyche) and the exterior (reality)”, in the artist’s words. The title of the exhibition “Cifra” refers to the unfathomable quality of the enigma, to “opacity” as it forms political and subjective resistance to dominant rationality. Language – regulated by the state, institutionalized by discipline and education – is subverted through moving, rhizomatic and enigmatic drawing. “Cyphering is subverting”, Dayana Lucas tells us in this exhibition that features the presentation of a “glass house”, an intimate and political metaphor for the world. As curator Marta Mestre says: “There is an initiatory sense in his gesture, in which the drawing is like a machine for seeing and feeling. The invention of a line that never ends, in Dayana Lucas, problematizes not only the closure of the gesture, but also its beginnings. It provokes the desire to drift, against the rationality of everyday life”.
“Summer Laboratories 2023” is the second exhibition that opens at CIAJG on September 30th and presents the work of the four winners of the open-call of the same name which is held by gnration, in Braga, and by the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (CIAJG), in Guimarães: Bárbara Fonte, Cláudia Cibrão, Guache, Lucas Carneiro and Manuel Costa.
Created in 2015 by gnration, and becoming a partnership with CIAJG since 2021, this initiative is aimed at artists or collectives resident or natural in the territory of the two institutions, who intend to develop new artistic works in the fields of image, sound, performance , interactivity, music, dance or disciplinary intersections. The jury for the 2023 edition highlights several qualities. For gnration's artistic director, Luís Fernandes, this year's edition stands out for the “high solidity and diversity of the winning projects, which reflects the growing qualitative level of creation in the territory”. Marta Mestre, artistic director of CIAJG, reinforces the importance of the Summer Laboratories program “for the development of the artistic fabric not only in Braga and Guimarães, where these two structures are based, but for the entire district”. Paulo Mendes, artist and guest judge for this edition of the program, states that “it is important that these artists gain visibility inside and outside their territory of action/creation”.
The exhibition occupies the entire -1 floor of the CIAJG. Bárbara Fonte (b. Braga, 1981) presents “A mais inábil candura”, a set of drawings and a succession of performative actions filmed in her studio, where the human body is the central element. Cláudia Cibrão (b. Barcelos, 1993) investigates the self and projected shadow with “Pintura immaterial”. Gouache (Gil Fortes, b. 1974; and Luciana Melo, n. 1972), from Rio de Janeiro, based in Braga, composes a video installation entitled “Improvisation in two ways” that demarcates the installation environment – distorted projection on two planes of a photo-investigation work – and the soundscape, in dialogue , create an immersive atmosphere. And Lucas Carneiro (b. Braga, 1990) and Manuel Costa (b. Braga, 1990) present “Hic Svnt Serpens”, an installation that crosses anachronistic times, where ancestral myths are recomposed in a new way in digital environments.
The day after the inauguration, Sunday, October 1st, at 11 am, the CIAJG and the Education and Cultural Mediation team at A Oficina also invite you to the first guided visit to the Dayana Lucas exhibition. It is said that mediation is a window, something that is between two worlds, and this is an opportunity to open it and discover without fear the artistic proposals that this new cycle presents (and challenges). With guidance from Luísa Abreu, the visit is free to participate, subject to prior registration using the form available at www.ciajg.pt.
To mark the start of the new exhibition cycle, entry to the museum will be free throughout the weekend (September 30th and October 1st).
SOURCE: The Workshop