Saturday 24 March 2007, 19.00

Programme duration  70 min

This eclectic programme of works by established and emerging artists who explores body-centred video, authorial tapes, visual poetry, media, social and historical experiments, as well as works that disrupt the traditional cause-and-effect narrative binary. In their own way, these pieces aim at engaging the viewer in reflection.

Introduced by the curator with a presentation by Simone Michelin, artist, researcher and teacher at the Fine Arts department UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

Programme:

Calors Nader, Carlos Nader, 1997, 15 min 30 sec

An essay about the limits of identity that explores the concept of autobiography, this award-winning tape includes interviews with the poet Waly Salomão, the philosopher Antonio Cícero and the transvestite Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Privacy Invasion, Inês Cardoso, 1995, 1 min

On the Phone is part of a series of video postcards made by Cardoso. In this one she plays messages from her answer phone over images of Amsterdam.

6 Pássaros (6 Birds), Maria Catani, 2002, 1 min 40 sec

One of a series of videos by the artist whose work is marked by repetition and the articulation of systems. Here birds form geometric patterns in the sky.

Brazilian Crime Novel, Inez Cabral de Melo, 2001, 6 min 30 sec

A subjective illustration of a poem by Braulio Tavares on the life of delinquent children in big Brazilian cities.

Greenhouse, Luis Roque/Leticia Ramos, 2004, 3 min

A greenhouse is filled with coloured smoke. Flowers bloom. A simple, symbolic sequence of images that allude to the passing of time.

4 Patos (4 Ducks), Maria Catani, 2003, 1 min 40 sec

Part of the same series as 6 Pássaros. Four ducks are linked by lines.

William e Fátima, Rafael Scaggion, 2002, 1 min

The on-screen dynamics of Brazil’s number-one newsreading couple gets deconstructed and saturated.

Procura [r]-se (Se(lf)arching), Daniella Mattos, 2002, 3 min

A situation where forced silence creates a possibility of exchange with the other.

Sem Título (Untitled), Bruno de Carvalho, 2003, 3 min

A real-time performance tape where a man buries a switched-on TV set, observing the relations between destruction and renaissance.

Cacophony - Scene 2, Simone Michelin, 2003, 5 min

Overlapping scenes of a gallery opening with dialogue excerpts from Glauber Rocha's film Cancer and music by Astor Piazolla and Roberto Carlos, Cacophony explores racism and economic exclusion with sheer poignancy.

4 Linhas (4 Lines), Maria Catani, 2004, 1 min 30 sec

A companion piece to 6 Birds and 4 Ducks, 4 Lines shows ants creating lines.

Diálogo com Narciso (Dialogue with Narcissus), Cássia Kallenah, 2001, 5 min

A sensual montage where the performer acts out a narcissistic aquatic ritual of physical transformation. An edit-based visual feast that borrows heavily from the lexicon of video clips.

Talk to Me, Camila Sposati, 2000, 3 min 25 sec

Tensions between the public and private spheres. A helicopter flies over the gargantuan urban sprawl of São Paulo and these images are juxtaposed with the fragmented sounds of a domestic situation.

R$6.66, Brócolis VHS, 2002, 1 min

A satire of the flow of televisual capitalism and how consumerism is literally expanding our waistlines.

Xuxa em Chamas (Xuxa on Fire) A Revolução Não Será Televisada, 2002, 5 min

Almost a ready-made, this video by the collective The Revolution Will Not Be Broadcast appropriates footage of the children’s programme presented by TV superstar Xuxa when a dance number is suddenly disrupted by a fire on the setting. Slowed down, this fragment reveals the fast creation and destruction of the image.

Alguma Coisa Que Eu Manipule Inteira (Something I Can Manipulate Entirely), Izabela Pucú, 2001, 5 min

The process of construction of an adobe hollow sphere, where the boundaries between beginning and end are blurred and the object can be indefinitely reconstructed.

Ação e Dispersão (Action and Dispersion), Cezar Migliorin, 2003, 5 min 30 sec

A witty take on public funding for the arts as we watch the money spent on the production of a film disappearing on the screen. A novel way of presenting budget reports, or a new take on the adage ‘time is money’?

US, Tadeu Jungle, 2004, 2 min

A collage of American icons juxtaposed with military images of the Gulf War illustrates the connection between American military might and cultural colonialism.

20 Ventos (20 Winds), Maria Catani, 2003, 2 min

One of a series of videos by the artist whose work is marked by repetition and the articulation of systems.

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£5, booking recommended