CO-LAB Editions 5 with Andrés Galeano and Maurice Block

Co-Lab Editions 5: Andrés Galeano (ESP/DE) and Maurice Block (NL/FIN) performing at SAVVY Contemporary
Curator: Marcio Carvalho
Sunday, the 6th of November 2011

Co-Lab Editions No. 5 brought together two performance artists whose different approaches created a space for intellectual dialogue and artistic collaboration. Throughout their performance Andrés Galeano and Maurice Block explored the theme of flight and its potential meanings and usages: the ideal of leaving the ground, the consciousness of falling, and the poetics and politics at stake when seeing the world from above.

Andrés Galeano explored and displayed the transformations and variations taken by a particular shape, specifically a cone-shaped paper form used for drinking water. Galeano's performance dealt with this form through a collection of images, playing with their placement and selection. Visual associations, mixed with the artist's precise selection of material are offered to the public as modes of contemplation.

In contrast to the more subtle nuances of Galeano's images, Maurice Block's performance sought out a more straight forward, unmediated contact within the same theme. The artist's use of both his own physicality and the limited physicality of objects lent a sense of risk and humour to the evening. Block reminded us that one has to embrace falling, breaking, and failing when fully exploring themes of flying.

The performance also played with recording and documenting in real time. A small video camera acted as an umbilical chord between the two artists and allowed the viewer to follow their actions without necessarily being in the same room with them. A sense of connection and at the same time, a meditation upon the processes involved were taking shape.

To view the online collaboration between the 2 artists, please follow the link:
http://co-labeditions5.blogspot.com/

Fall to Call with Alastair McLennan and Essi Kausaleinen

Co-Lab Editions No.4
Curator: Marcio Carvalho
Sunday, the 9th of October 2011

"Time we have is not so vital as time we make" (Alastair MacLennan in Rain, Rein, Reign)

Through their collaborative performance Alastair MacLennan and Essi Kausaleinen brought in a different pace of walking, of touching things around them, of breathing and thinking about the place and the time they spent there. Bringing installation art and performance together, using a rhythm reminiscent of rituals and a patience dilating not only time but also space, Essi Kausaleinen and Alastair MacLennan's Fall to Call created a fruitful harvest time.

MacLennan and Kausaleinen first met in Berlin where they began their collaboration. They wanted to meet each other in a free state of mind, to bring with them no expectations about the place or about each other. They wanted to discover common ground and common ideas at the actual place, together, without any kind of previous mediation. It's what they call “actuality”, being present in a specific place, dealing with the here and now, sharing time and space, and developing trust. Both artists move within the field of visual poetics, where words are not necessary to establish communication and spaces, regardless of size, begin to function as landscapes. They believe in the power of details, their artistic interventions are gentle, almost economical, yet at the same time radical.







While in Berlin, they also chose not to share images taken during their trips to the Botanical Garden on the Co-Lab-Editions website. For some previous Co-Lab-Editions partnerships it was essential that the artists’ collaboration was made public along the way. This time, the documentation of Essi Kausaleinen and Alastair MacLennan’s work would come to light only after their performance, not before it.

Working in the Botanical Garden Essi and Alastair shared time and space together in a process of looking for inspiration. And their performance at SAVVY was, according to their own words, a process of “sharing creation” with the public.



To find out more about the performance please also have a look here:
http://colabeditions4.blogspot.com/

Co-Lab Editions 2 at SAVVY Contemporary

Pants Konzepte
An event tailored by Ruth Feukoua and Serge Olivier Fokoua (Cameroon)
Curated by Marcio Carvalho
Wednesday, the 27th of April 2011

Have you ever been to an art performance and had your underwear tailored for you in the same time?
On Wednesday, the 27th of April 2011 the SAVVY Contemporary gallery in Berlin was pleased to offer its visitors this unique experience.
The performance conducted by the 2 Cameroonian artists was funny, playful and intimate: under the eyes of a simultaneously amused and shy public, they took their time and wrapped visitors' butts and waists in vividly coloured tape, thus tailoring individual pieces of underwear. Separated from their initial model, the emerging objects were placed in all their size and form on high pedestals and raised to the status of sculptures. Later that evening, driven by curiosity, some of us dared to touch the exhibited underwear. The electric colour of the tape added to their almost surreal appearance. Each pair of underwear, unique and lavishly resting on display, also brought a smile to the people passing by the gallery, who didn't witness the process of their creation and had no idea how the objects showed up there.

This performance has its roots in a long time collaboration between the curator and the 2 artists. At first there was an exchange of images and cityscapes from Berlin to Cameroon and the beginning of an inspired, creative process. Seeing people walk the streets of Berlin made the artists want to do the same... but in their own way. This is how they got the idea of walking through Berlin wearing an unusual outfit. Imagine two grown-ups wearing funny-looking, over-sized underwear walk through the city together with their daughter. The documentation of the whole process took the form of a video, which the visitors could watch at the gallery on the day of the performance.
Their daughter's presence brought a feeling of casualness to their strolling through Berlin. And it also fits the artistic credo of Ruth Feukoua and Serge Olivier Fokoua who like to work together as a family. This also goes back to another one of their performances, the one called Sharing love. This time the two partners washed each other's body and fed each other a special dish, as a sign of their mutual recognition and shared love in the creation of their daughter. During this performance Ruth Feukoua was actually pregnant, which brings real life and performance on the same level of experience. In an invisible manner, the child was also taking part in her parents' performance. And the viewer became a privileged witness of a very intimate moment that deals with creation, recognition and sharing.
This sense of intimacy, sometimes sensual, like in Sharing love, sometimes funny, like in Pants
Konzepte at SAVVY Contemporary is characteristic of their work. And also the idea of giving form to things that deeply inform our lives while remaining unseen.

The evening unfolded itself in 3 parts: the video-screening and the performance itself were complemented by a round discussion in the presence of the performers and the curator. The atmosphere was friendly and the topics ranged from performance art in Africa, its tradition and founding needs, the interference of the political regimes in the cultural life... The flow of the discussion originated in the fact that performance art is still new in Cameroon, with the invited artists being among the very few ones who choose it as a form of artistic expression. Their endeavour also materialized in a group of Cameroonian artists (Palettes of Kamer) who share the same interest in contemporary art and who value performance as one of its most powerful manifestations.

www.savvy-contemporary.com
http://co-labeditions.blogspot.com/