"“The press, illustration, photography, cinema, as well as recorders, calculators, computers undoubtedly increase artificial memories, while at the same time they decrease human mnemonic abilities. The eyes see less, the nose stops smelling and the mouth stops tasting, the sense of touch is depleted, hearing becomes deteriorated, brutalized by continuous noise and superfluous decibels. Reality emerges, henceforth, under the modality of the present, the exact moment, without roots or extensions.”
Michel Onfray in Théorie du voyage [Theory of travelling].

This exhibition is an extension of the activities which were undertaken during the “Cuidados Intensivos” [Intensive Care] programme, carried out in Vila do Conde between March and July 2013 and developed in the scope of the Artist-in-residence project supported by Circular Associação Cultural. This programme's objective was to rediscover traces from artistic productions, thus making it possible to identify and work on issues related to the preservation and the reactivation of memories. Moreover, there were other issues involved, such as the observation of the shapes with which performance art produces features and the circumstances in which what is produced informs and influences the configuration of future actions. Starting from a sort of archaeological evidence, which actually is not more than having permission to look again, to recognise, to identify what is necessary to take care of, what is able to be retrieved from the realm of the ephemeral and disappearance. The main objective is to reveal fragments from the artists’ archives, to find summary forms and clues in which to base on new experiences.

At this stage, integrating the 9th edition of Circular Performance Art Festival, we have set as a priority the idea of refusing memory’s crystallization, by trying to observe it as fluid, by setting the ground for a game with the present and with the future. Evoking both memory and archive, ways of interpreting existence would serve as a contrast to the non-linear understanding of time, which is subject to friction, as a constant process of searching for intensity, of revitalizing the imagination and of progressing into the unknown.

The artists who took part in this exhibition present new pieces, which represent different processes of organization, of thought and of the relationship established with the surrounding space of the gallery. The exhibition has two simultaneous modes, a documental one, which can be visited during the festival, and an activated mode. Consequently, in three distinct occasions the exhibition space is occupied by performances.

At Cuidados Intensivos - Programa de Encontros, Performances e Exposições [Intensive Care - Presentations, Performances and Exhibitions Programme] there were three exhibitions and six presentations by artists. A short video summarising this programme will be available at the current exhibition.

Curator: Joclécio Azevedo. | Works by: Ghuna X, Joclécio Azevedo, Paulo Mendes + Maria Trabulo, Rogério Nuno Costa, António Lago & Susana Chiocca | Co-production: Circular Associação Cultural, Curtas Metragens CRL, Solar Galeria de Arte Cinemática | Support: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

The objects in the Cuidados Intensivos [Intensive Care] exhibitions were kindly provided by: Andreas Dyrdal, António Júlio, Flávio Rodrigues, Joana Providência, Joclécio Azevedo, Miguel Pipa, Né Barros, Paulo Mendes, Pedro Augusto/Ghuna X, Rogério Nuno Costa, Susana Chiocca, Teresa Prima, Vera Santos and Victor Hugo Pontes 
Observers: Cristina Grande and Helder Dias  
Technical support: Susana Medina

Exhibition developed in the scope of the Artist-in-residence project supported by Circular Associação Cultural.

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