51st Venice Biennale . 2005
Portuguese artists
invited to the Venice Biennale
Joana Vasconcelos
João Louro
Vasco Araújo
Portuguese artists invited to the Venice Biennale
The year 2005 marks Portugal’s biggest presence ever at the 51st Venice Art
Biennale. Besides the official Portuguese representative – the “Intus”
exhibition by Helena Almeida, curated by Isabel Carlos, to be presented in
the Portuguese Pavilion (Scoletta Tiraoro e Battioro) – the artists Joana
Vasconcelos, João Louro and Vasco Araújo are also present at the Biennale,
invited by the curators María de Corral and Rosa Martínez.
www.iartes.pt/bienalveneza2005
51st International Art Exhibition
Venice Biennale . 2005
Portuguese artists invited to the Venice Biennale
Joana Vasconcelos
Joana Vasconcelos exhibits A Noiva at the Biennale, at the invitation
of the curator Rosa Martínez. It is included in the show Always a Little
Further and will be presented at the main entrance of Arsenale.
“Joana Vasconcelos is considered the most conspicuous young Portuguese
artist of recent years. Working mainly in the area of sculpture and
installation, she embodies the link between different generations and is a
veteran of the young and innovative generation of Portuguese creative
artists of the 1990s. Her mark and strong personality are revealed in the
significance of her works via the banality of objects used in daily life,
particularly in the case of a young woman influenced by anything related to
design and architecture, due to both size and functionality. In a play on
styles, many of her works seek to develop a meaning for these new esthetic
objects, giving them a new pertinence, whether from the critical, functional
or esthetic standpoint.”
Agustin Pérez Rubio, Chief Curator of MUSAC (Museo de Arte Conteporáneo de
Castilla y Leon, Spain) , in Play JV, Ed. Mimesis, 2004.
A Noiva (The Bride),
2001
Steel, OB tampons
600 x 300 x 300 cm
Col. António Cachola,
Campo Maior
Photo: Luis Vasconcelos
Joana Vasconcelos was born in Paris in 1971. She lives and works in Lisbon.
She studied at Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual, in Lisbon, from
1989 to 1996. In 2003 she was awarded the “Fundo Tabaqueira Arte Pública”
prize for her plan to redesign a Lisbon square (Largo da Academia das Belas
Artes), currently being prepared. She has exhibited regularly in Portugal
and abroad since 1994. Noteworthy among her solo shows are “Joana
Vasconcelos”, Passage du Désir/BETC EURO RSCG, Paris (2005); “I Lusas”,
Casa de América, Madrid (2004), “Joana Vasconcelos”, Galeria Casa
Triângulo, São Paulo (2004); “Marquise”, Galeria 111, Porto (2004); “Todas
las direcciones”, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporâneo, Seville (2003);
“F.A.T.”, Galeria 111, Lisbon (2002); “Happy Lady”, Galeria Mário Sequeira,
Braga (2001); “Medley”, Galeria Central Tejo/Museu da Electricidade,
Lisbon (2001); and “Ponto de Encontro”, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de
Serralves, Porto (2000). She has also taken part in a number of group shows,
including: “30 artists under 40”, the Stenersen Museum, Oslo (2004);
“Outras Alternativas – Novas experiências visuais em Portugal”, MARCO, Vigo
(2003); “Nuevos Proyectos/News Projects”, Fundación NMAC, Montenmedio
(2003); “Trans Sexual Express”, Kunsthalle Mucsarnok, Budapest (2002);
“Paralela”, Galeria Casa Triângulo, São Paulo (2002);
“Squatters/Ocupações”, Palácio da Justiça, Porto (2001); “Prémio City
Desk”, Fundação D. Luis I, Cascais (2001); Galeria Luis Adelantado, Valencia
(2000); and “Colecção António Cachola – Arte Portuguesa anos 80-90”,
MEIAC, Badajoz (1999). She works with Galeria 111, Lisbon and Porto;
Galeria Mário Sequeira, Braga; Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid; Galeria Casa
Triângulo, São Paulo; and Galerie Gilles Peyroulet, Paris. Her works are
represented in public and private collections.
Galeria 111, Lisboa - www.galeria111.pt
Galeria Elba Benitez, Madrid -www.elbabenitez.com
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Portuguese artists invited to the Venice Biennale
João Louro
João Louro exhibits Blind Image #47 and Blind Image #66 at the
Biennale, at the invitation of the curator María de Corral. It is
included in the show “The Experience of Art”, to be presented in
the Italian Pavilion.
Blind Image #47, 2003
Acrylic on canvas,
enamel on Plexiglas
200 x 300 cm
Private collection, USA.
“The Blind Images of João Louro are paintings hidden behind acrylic
sheet that to the viewer makes them cool and distant. The paintings
come in a wide variety of sizes and often use just one or two colors,
framed in black. Below fields of uniform color are titles taken from
publications, magazines or newspapers which describe a situation that
usually involves well-known figures from the artistic jet-set; at other
times the very situations set out in the text facilitate the viewer’s
recognition. The situations described in the title decode the image, as
in the media, and are often important situations in art history, or
otherwise moments taken from a film or even mere social occasions.
What unites them is the element of recognition offered to the viewer: a
name, date, place, person.”
Excerpt from the text “Lo.Lee.Ta” by Delfim Sardo, in Blind Runner, Lisbon,
Fundação Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa, 2004, p.23.
João Louro (1963) lives and works in Lisbon. He studied Architecture at
the University of Lisbon and later Painting at the Escola de Arte e
Comunicação (Ar.co). His work was affirmed in the context of the 1990s,
when doing a work of art became indispensably associated with
awareness of the conditions of its production, circulation and reception.
The works shown at the Venice Biennale were included in the "Blind
Runner" exhibition, presented at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon
(2004) at the invitation of the curator Delfim Sardo. They reflect the
artist's maturity, continuing the exploration of issues related to image
excess in the contemporary world and the problems associated with
language use.
His works use a wide range of current-day icons such as automobiles,
signs, sound systems, neons and lights.
Galeria Cristina Guerra, Lisboa - www.cristinaguerra.com
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Portuguese artists invited to the Venice Biennale
Vasco Araújo
Vasco Araújo expõe The Girl of the Golden West na Bienal, a
convite da curadora María de Corral, integrado na exposição The
Experience of Art, que será apresentada no Pavilhão Italiano.
The Girl of the Golden West is based in the story of Giacomo Puccini’s
opera “ la fanciulla del west”, that consists in a love triangle between a
girl, a sheriff, and a Mexican/ American bandit.
These two men are in love with the girl and they demonstrate this passion
through different ways that results in social abusements and different
truths in a place where everything is extremely difficult, this scene takes
place in California during the invasion of the Americans in the Mexican
territory.
The Girl of the Golden West, 2004
From this point of view I had proposed to a common person, a black
videostill
woman, that lives in United States and especially in Texas, to see and to
make comments of this opera and this film through the way of the
Human rights, from what is right and what is wrong in the society rules,
and who is the hero of the story for someone that had suffer the
punishment of being different.
So this piece integrates my work by the way that how this
Character/narrator identifies her self and how her self gives us to know a
fiction story that becomes her own story and by this way she defines
many identities, that goes from her to the other characters. It is with this
that the public is confronted and so originates all the confusion about
who is really the girl.
Vasco Araújo
Vasco Araújo was born in 1975 in Lisbon, the city where he lives and
works. He studied sculpture at the Faculdade de Belas Artes of the
University of Lisbon from 1994 to 1999, continuing his education in the
Advanced Plastic Arts Course at the Escola Maumaus in Lisbon, from 1999
to 2000. In 2002 he received the prize “Novos Artistas da EDP,
Electricidade de Portugal”, for which he created the exhibition
Sabine/Brunilde, shown in 2003 at the SNBA space in Lisbon. In 2003 and
2004 he was included the Core Program of resident artists at the
Houston Museum of Fine Arts (USA). In 2005 he took part in the Artist-inResidence program at the Couvent des Récollets in Paris (France).
He has regularly exhibited in Portugal and abroad since 1999.
Noteworthy among his solo shows are “Dilemma”, Stedelijk Museum voor
Actuele Kunst, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (2005); “Dilema”, Museu de
arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto (2004); “Hamlet”, Galerie
Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris (2004) ; “Sabine/Brunilde”, Prémio EDP Novos
Artistas, SNBA, Lisbon (2003); “Yuill/Crowley Gallery”, Sydney (2002);
“Project Room”, ARCO, Madrid (2002); and Galeria Cesar/Filomena
Soares, Lisbon (2001). (.../)
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Portuguese artists invited to the Venice Biennale
(/...)
He has also taken part in a number of group shows, including: “Dialectics of
Hope”, 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Rosizo
(2005); “AMALGAMA”, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston (2004); “Europe
Exists”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2003);
“Solo (For Two Voices)”, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College,
Annandale, USA (2003) ; “Universal Strangers”, Borusan Art Gallery, Istanbul
(2003); “Melodrama”, ARTIUN, Centro-Museo Basco de Arte Contemporaneo,
Vitoria-Gasteiz (2002)/Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, Granada
(2003)/MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo, Vigo (2003); “Trans
Sexual Express, a Classic for the Third millennium”, Centre d’Art Santa
Mònica, Barcelona, (2001)/Kunsthalle Mucsarnok, Budapest (2002)/Kiosko
Alfonso, La Coruña (2002); “Some Enchanted Evening”, performance,
Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon (2001); and “O carteiro toca sempre duas
vezes”, Museu das Comunicações, Lisbon (2000).
He works with the Galeria Filomena Soares in Lisbon and the Galerie
Gabrielle Maubrie in Paris. His work is represented in public and private
collections, such as the Banco Privado on deposit at the Fundação de
Serralves, Porto; the Fundação de Serralves/Museu de Arte Contemporânea
de Serralves, Porto; the Centro de Arte Moderna/Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.
Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisboa - www.gfilomenasoares.com
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Institut of the Arts |Portuguese Ministry of Culture
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Mor information:
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www.labiennale.org/en/visualarts/51iae/index.html
- The Experience of Art (Italian Pavilion) - curator María de Corral
- Always a Little Further (Arsenale) - curator Rosa Martínez
- Participating Countries (Giardini and Venice)
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