Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Using an aquarium as setting by juxtaposing images of fish to an ocean background, a woman, who appears immersed in it, delivers a speech whose sound pitch has been modified and made deep so as its meaning is unintelligible. Dancers, a dog, a television set, and a naked woman on the edge of the scene give the situation an almost surreal atmosphere which, together with the impossibility of understanding the woman’s speech, humorously alludes to the difficulty of female accomplishment on the professional field. Watch excerpt from the video.

In Spanish, escenario [scenery] means both the place where action take place (scene) and the portion of the theater where the scene plays out (stage). There is no sign of human presence in the work but through the confirmation that something has happened—an abandoned car burns—and how Watanabe places the spectators themselves as witnesses of what they are watching. In a four-turn cycle, a 360° panoramic shows scenes that allude to personal memories of the artist, as well as to events of the recent history of Peru, her native country. Watanabe thus investigates where individual stories begin and where they intersect with collective narratives. Watch excerpt from the video.

The faces of two heavily made-up women are focused and, while they submit to each other's kisses and caresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that the camera is the main point of focus. Their interaction is silenced by the juxtaposition of a noisy and distracting soundtrack appropriated from an AM radio station: obscene jokes from talk show hosts and male listeners interacting with the crude words of a normative masculinity. Read against feminist film theory of the “male gaze,” the work is a response to the idea of a distinctively female artistic sensibility and a highly charged statement of the sexual politics that guides the acts of viewing and role-playing.

Homenagem a George Segal [Tribute to George Segal] began as a photoperformance conducted in 1975 and became, ten years later, in Lenora’s first videoperformance, inspired by the lonely, pathetic figures by the American sculptor. Facing the camera, the artist brushes her teeth vigorously by the sound of the Beatles’ She Loves You. The foam gradually overflows, completely covering her face and head, giving her an aspect similar to Segal’s eerie characters.

Acquisition Award - New Vectors - 16th Videobrasil Part of the Dízima periódica [Circulating decimal] series, the video departs from a mathematical principle in visualizing a situation intrinsically associated with limits: the process of coming. A tribute to the classic Andy Warhol film Blow Job.

A caricature of a professor teaching English to non-native speakers. Her mannerisms, her accent, the content of her speech—all are absurd, in the tradition of Eugène Ionesco’s characters. Images of the professor alternate with collages, many taken from Bobe’s other works, filled with elements of the European culture present in sensual scenes, religious symbols, artworks, and classical music. Through its ironic humor, La Profesora [The Teacher] foregrounds the absurdity of teaching English in a country where many cannot read their native language. The prevalence of the English language in post and neocolonial societies is thus called into question, both politically and socially.

Samba #2 analyzes three essential images of Brazilian culture: Carnival, samba, and the butt. The slow motion camera exposes micro-movements that are usually imperceptible, revealing new images of a reality we assume to know. Approaching culture from its most visceral and corporeal element, the video de-constructs the habitual image of the female body to evoke a series of key Brazilian issues revolving around the body as sexuality, violence, beauty, and dance. Watch excerpt from the video.

The artist appropriates the language of Chinese TV shows to discuss the coexistence of different times and cultures, of the urban environment and rural life, of tradition and progress that expire and reinvent themselves. Sitting on his bed, wearing the garments of a Muslim woman, the artist describes himself. The video subtly and powerfully discusses the randomness of the notion of belonging and the subjective detachment intrinsic to the concept of identity. Watch excerpt from the video.

Fragments of old pornographic films are appropriated of through mirroring, gaining a kaleidoscopic aspect to this experimental video. The multiplication of fragments of moving images, just as in a kaleidoscope, creates new forms while reveals the dimension of pure plasticity and self-eroticism of the images. The face, mouth, hands, and other parts of the body become mere red and pink shapes that fold unto themselves. Fast, short-noted melodies interpreted by a string ensemble accompany the changing rhythm of the visual forms, taking us on a plastic and dreamy journey through sex. Watch excerpt from the video.