Mariana Silva 

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What is my work about?

My practice is built on long-term research projects, and often results in series of works conceived to play off each other within the setting of an installation, exhibition, or a site-specific context.

From conceptions of theater audiences to contemporary social tensions in what the public nature of art may be, my work tends to look into the notion of collectivity built around culture and art. This has also led to a reflection on the role of publics (or audiences) in the enactment of democracy as a sensuous, aesthetic experience.

As of late, this previous historical oriented research has evolved into a more abstract, fictionalized representation of this contested ideological terrain of what defines culture within an exhibition space. It deals with social groups such as museum publics or classes of workers, amidst shifting labor conditions, and giving special care to sociological points of tension under the post-2008 crisis austerity measures.

 

Artist Statement

My practice is built on long-term research projects, and often results in series of works conceived to play off each other within the setting of an installation, exhibition, or a site-specific context. Although a substantial amount of works are moving image they often are installed so that spatial and discursive relations between works can be established cumulatively.

A first nucleus of research that was established around multiple works investigated the historical origins of audience participation in theatrical performances (How We Are To Be Named, 2010). It considers though animation, sound, and performance directors’ and architects’ plans to activate the public and the relation between stage and audience, which are then contrasted with the iconoclasm of historical cases of audience riots in theaters (Notations on Drawing the Curtain Down, 2010).

This series of works dovetailed into a second, more recent nucleus that reflects on publics (audiences) and the enactment of democracy as a sensuous experience. This research spans, for example: the solo show The Organization of Forms (2012) and the olfactory movie for cinemas Un Affaire de Creux et des Bosses (2012), both of which consider closely the case of the Louvre Museum, the first public museum and built to be a symbol of the French Republic as established from the French Revolution on. This case is a notorious example, albeit riddled contradictions that I am interested in: the Louvre Museum is both historically subject to vandalism and riots, and simultaneously iconoclastic in its museographical displacement of royal and religious objects into a “cultural” context, extracting their original belief systems; advocating equal access to art within its institution while at the same time inaugurating pillages in the name of a universal culture around the world.

This historical perspective has evolved into the on-going 3D animation videos Friends of Interpretable Objects (2013-) where a number of monitors exhibit each an artifact that speaks to this contested ideological terrain of what defines culture within an exhibition space. The selected objects, rendered and shot as videos, also refer to their status and currency in the construction the modern narrative of culture. Their display on monitors allows them to be combined curatorially in different arrangements upon invitation.

This latter research has also expanded to the nature of cultural and sociological representation today, as well as shifting labor conditions, which has led to recent works such as Explore, Experience, Enjoy (2013-2014) and Warp, Weft, and Web (2014). Both works attempt to translate economic and sociological points of tension both in art and labor conditions, which have become more evident the various austerity measures and rhetoric established after the 2008 crisis.

For instance, Explore, Experience, Enjoy (2013-2014) is a double channel 3D animation in which I represent a fictional exhibition on the walls and floorplan of Information (1970), a historical exhibition for the establishment of conceptualism. In the piece the status of objects on display is ambiguous: it is unclear if they are art or cultural artifacts that would rather belong to an anthropology museum. Although the museum audience is absent in the video, it is also—similarly to the above-cited investigation on conceptions of theater publics—a reflection on the contemporary status of social groups, such as workers or museum-visiting publics. My practice is built on long-term research projects, and results in series of works which, despite a substantial amount of work in moving image, are often conceived to play off each other within the setting of an installation, exhibition, or a site specific context. Despite a substantial amount of work in moving image format, the focus has frequently been on how to activate these pieces within installations, and as of late, displayed spatially within an exhibition, or inversely reflect on a discursive exhibition format.

 

CV

Education

2007  Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Portugal/ UDK, Berlin, Germany

 

Employment

2008-2012: Freelance work as artist, designer, co-curator, and programmer.

2012-ongoing: Managing Editor of e-flux journal

 

Solo Exhibitions

2013

Environments, with Pedro Neves Marques, e-flux, New York, USA. (Two-person show)

P/p, Mews Project Space, London, in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.

2011

The Organization of Forms, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Screenings

2013

Une Affaire de Creux et des Bosses, Whitechapel Gallery Auditorium, London, UK.

2011

Une Affaire de Creux et des Bosses, Cinema Nimas, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Group Exhibitions:

2014

Indie Film Festival: moving image, with Pedro Neves Marques, curated by João Laia, Lisbon, Portugal.

2012

Projecto Galeto, Restaurante Galeto, Lisbon, Portugal.

2011

For Love, not Money, Graphic Arts Triennial, Kumu Museum of Art, Tallin, Estonia.

Power to the people: Contemporary Conceptualism and the Object in Art, Australian Center for

Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia.

2010

To the arts, citizens!, Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal.

Plato’s Pharmacy, with Diego Marcon, Uscitapistoia, Pistoia, Italy.

The Philosophy of Money, City Museum, Lisbon, Portugal.

Impressiones y comentarios: Fotografía Contemporánea Portuguesa, Fundació Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain, and Sala Parpallo,Valencia, Spain.

Perpetual Interview, with Pierre Leguillion, Falke Pisano, Michele di Menna, Von Calhau!, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal.

Into the Unknown, with Deimantas Narkevičius, Sarah Pierce, Mariana Silva, Dmitry Gutov, and António Cunha Telles, Ludlow 38, New York, USA.

2009

Open Studios, ISCP, New York, USA.

Republic or the People’s Theatre, with Hugo Canoilas, Rossela Biscotti, and Asier Mendizabal, in the Estates-General cycle, Arte Contempo, Lisbon, Portugal.

2008

Bes Revelation Prize, with David Infante and Nicolai Nehk, Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal.

The Escape Route’s Design, artist’s book with Pedro Neves Marques, launch at Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, Germany.

Eurasia, Museum House Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves, Lisbon, Portugal

2007

Antes que a produção cesse, Avenida 211, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Residencies:

2012

Portuguese Cultural Center, São Tomé and Principe.

2010

Paul Klee Zentrum’s Sommerakademie, curated by Jan Verwoert, August 9-19.

2009-10

International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, October-March.

 

Prizes:

BES Revelation Prize 2008, selected by the juri: Ricardo Nicolau (Serralves Contemporary Art Museum); Bruno Marchand (independent curator); Pierre Muylle (Museum SMAK, Ghent); Sandra Terdjman (Kadist Art Foundation).

 

Publications:

2013

P/p, artist’s prints, riso on cotton paper, 50 copies.

2011

Nuno Faria (ed.), Arquipélago, Allgarve ’10.

2010

João Fernandes e Óscar Faria (eds.), Às artes, cidadãos! To the arts, citizens! catalogue, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum.

Sofia Victorino e Ricardo Nicolau (eds.), Exhibition Newspaper: Às Artes Cidadãos!/To the Arts, Citizens!, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum.

2008

Maria Ramos (ed.) BES Revelation 2008 catalogue, Serralves Contemporary Art Museum.

The Escape Route’s Design, Assessment of the current Aesthetics on History, a comparative reading based on an example close to the city of Berlin, artist book with Pedro Neves Marques, 100 copies, reedited in e-flux Journal #6, 2009.

2007

Antes que a produção cesse exhibition catalogue, independent publishing, 2007.

 

Curatorial and Editorial Projects

2011-12

Agency, with Margarida Mendes and Mariana Silva, program of events at The Barber Shop, Lisbon, Portugal, including Benedict Seymor (Mute Magazine), UNIPOP, Teresa Nobre (Creative Commons Portugal), Kobe Matthys, Temporary Services, and texts by Marina Vishmidt, and Michael Hardt.

See http://www.thisisthebarbershop-agencia.com/

2011

Co-curator at The Barber Shop, Lisbon, Portugal, with program of talks including Caterina Riva (FormContent, London/Artspace, Auckland), Daniel Maclean, UNIPOP, Scottish Artists Union, Anselm Franke (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin), Filipa Ramos & António Contador, Kobe Matthys, and Temporary Services. See http://www.thisisthebarbershop-agencia.com/agencia2011.html

2009

Estates-General, co-curated, Arte Contempo, Lisbon, Portugal, including the shows Republic or the

People’s Theatre, History of the Future, Khubla Khan and Anton Vidokle: Exhibition as School, Lisbon, Portugal. See http://estadosgeraisinfo.blogspot.com/

2007

Antes que a produção cesse, group show at Avenida 211, Lisbon, Portugal, 2007.