Associação Cultural Videobrasil

The artists featured in the 19^th Festival’s Southern Panoramas | Guest Artists exhibit, Abdoulaye Konaté, Gabriel Abrantes, Sonia Gomes, Rodrigo Matheus and Yto Barrada, discuss their artworks in the show.  Their speeches are complemented by remarks about said artworks by the curators João Laia, Júlia Rebouças, Bernardo de Souza, Bitu Cassundé, and Associação Cultural Videobrasil director Solange Farkas. The Festival, whose past guests included pivotal names for the comprehension of contemporary art – such as Olafur Eliasson, Peter Greenaway and Bill Viola, among others – includes work by five key current artists from the so-called Global South. Konaté describes the process of production of three panels based on his trips through Brazil: Brésil 1 (Guarani), “L`Oiseau”, and “Le Crayon,” with Farkas commenting on the centrality of the Malian artist’s piece to the 19th Festival’s conception. Abrantes expounds on the appropriation of Hollywood clichés for his film Liberdade, with additional comments from Laia. Sonia Gomes and Júlia Rebouças relate the challenges involved in creating of the installation Deslocar, which pulls together pieces made by Gomes at different points in her career. The retrieval of the history of Sesc Pompeia’s warehouse – where the exhibition is taking place – is the topic of Rodrigo Matheus’ statement on his installation Mauser & Cia, complemented with comments from Bernardo de Souza. Finally, Yto Barrada outlines the social and political context surrounding her piece Wallpaper-Tangier, which Bitu Cassundé examines in his speech.