Untitled - Ângelo Ferreira de Sousa

cc + âfs
carla cruz
ângelo ferreira de sousa
[ 2000 - 20011 ]
The projects presented by the Portuguese artistic duo Carla Cruz and Ângelo Ferreira de Sousa result of a
convergent dialogue related to their own personal work. The vectors that, interlaced, weave the collective
projects seek to strengthen the effectiveness of a political strategy of intervention on “public” or exhibition
spaces.
This collaboration, initiated in 2000 in the context of a broader collective adventure called Caldeira 213 (an
artists run space) and recently resumed with greater intensity, is sometimes anonymous, in some other uses the
camouflage that the artistic speech offers, but always tends to a kind of disappearance without remnants.
The precariousness of the ephemeral is a way of struggle. As in the case of the actions in the abandoned cinema
Águia de Ouro and the former Clérigos Shopping, both located in Oporto’s city center. In both it is explored
the ambiguity about the source of the artistic gesture: how does a passer-by "reads" the graffiti left in the old
cinema? As a gesture of protest or a delirium at the same time athletic and poetic? Following the "tourist" visit
organised to the old Clérigos Shopping several newspapers and TV reporters have referred to the action without
ever quoting (or even suspect) that they were before an event belonging to the activities of a contemporary art
venue. (Apêndice space). The abandonment, in which the city (Oporto) is left to, is a fertile ground where we
wish to continue to intervene.
Nowadays Carla lives in London and Ângelo in Paris where they continue both their individual practices but
also look for opportunities to intensify their ongoing virtual dialogue and collective practice. Curious with a
call for artist that specifically asks for the artists political position here goes the response: CC and ÂFS are
libertarian left wing feminist artists in solidarity with all discriminated and oppressed.
“Journal d’Anticipation”
a project by Jocelyn Cottencin
Biennale d'art contemporain de Rennes - France, 2010
Participation in the editorial team of “Journal
d’Anticipation” (4 issues)
A project by Jocelyn Cottencin for the Rennes
Contemporary Art Biennial - France, 2010.
For each edition CC+ÂFS created interventions that
read in continuity, sketched a graphic novel that
extended time: 2010, 2020, 2036 and 2060 – from the
disappearance of bronze sculptures a bit throughout
an (immigrant ) Europe to the reappearance, in the
orbit of the moon, of the first human device to the
leave the solar system: the space probe Pioneer 10..
http://www.jocelyncottencin.com/lejournaldanticipation/
“Fox Power 800”
CC+AFS in collaboration with Jose Arnaud-Bello
The Mews – project space – London, Uk. July 2010
The installation created by the provisional trio rests somewhere between places
and ideas. Home and background; territory and nation; travelling and departing;
tourism and migration; the artists and their work rest in a liminal space, a space
of becoming: in the threshold.
The installation was composed by a sculptural wooden box full of soil, that served
as last home for a greenhouse of “weed” carefully taken from the surrounding
of the alley that leads to the exhibition space. On the top of that box a powerful
generator was placed, that simultaneously gave life to the space and the weed
generating electricity for the lights and exterminated the plants and their visibility
by releasing toxic fumes. The viewer, left outside the space and only peeping in
from the only window, couldn’t do much more than witnessing the event.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=1013
“Praça do Anjo I”
Former Anjo square, actual Lisbon Square, former Clérigos
Shopping (…)
Action in the context of Apêndice project space
Oporto, 2007
Guided tour to an abandoned Shopping Centre in the heart
of Oporto. A professional guide (Ricardo Gomes) leads the
group by the carcass of an old shopping space. The ghost
of the ‘angel’, a sculpture by the master José Rodrigues
stolen from the spot, hangs above the visitors. Action
organised by the Associação de Amigos da Praça do Anjo
[Association of Friends of the Angel Square].
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=647
“Praça do Anjo II”
Gesto Art Space and former Clérigos Shopping, 2008
Return to the ruined space and to the memory of a stolen sculpture,
this time to unveil a commemorative plaque. The inaugural ceremony
had improvised music by the group 'Calhau’.
The performance wrapped up the opening of a documentary exhibition
on the life and fall of the sculpture, called 'A Anja' (= female angel).
To various police information was added an interview with the sculptor
and author of the work.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=762
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=770 (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy0jtQlHM7A& (video at youtube)
“The Oporto’s Court of São João Novo ordered yesterday, X, to a prison sentence
of four months on charges of receiving stolen goods, the only unlawful act proved
in trial”; wrote, in november 2009, M. Cláudia Monteiro in the Newspaper
Notícias. As an urban tale remains the story that the alleged thieves withdrew
energy – to power the equipment needed to shred the bronze sculpture – directly
from one of the Clérigos Shopping abandoned stores. The female angel, created
by the sculpture José Rodrigues, valued at 200 thousand euros, is the thread to
the history of this square. Initially called Angel Square, as the legend tells that
the wife of D. Afonso have fallen there from her donkey, and the king ordered
that a chapel should be erected on the place. It was after an outdoor market and
later, when Oporto wanted to appear as a truly European city, that it became
Lisbon Square and Clérigos Shopping.
In 2006, none of the refined stores remained open, the space being used only as
access to the underground parking. And more specifically, in December 22nd,
thieves, who were neither members of an international art trafficking network,
nor bearing Zorro’s masks, decided to strike the final blow to a space death at
birth.
How many more similar spaces will arise in the city to fall, not under the thick
cover of a great cataclysm such as Pompeii, but due to the rapid erosion of the
negligent planning of our leaders?
Association of Friends of the Angel Square, Oporto 2010.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Associacao-de-Amigos-da-Praca-do-Anjo/111103738912574
“Night on Earth (Noite na Terra)”
Painted on the facade of the old movie theatre / video – Porto 2006
We chose Águia d’Ouro cinema as a paradigmatic example, extinct for a
large number of years, there is few memories of its golden age. Many new
it already in decline or even in the ruin that it is today. Thus, numb to this
city that rots more rapidly that it is renewed, we present this little video that
shows the announcement of a film. "Night on Earth" (by Jim Jarmush). For
that is what happens every day in this city. Dusk. Darkens. Ages.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=439
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=438 (vídeo)
“1980 - photography”
Mural
Lisbon, 2008
We painted a mural from the years of the Portuguese
revolution, but with no text, thus the only reference is
iconic. The book, the dove, the factory towers. For how
long will these be a referent to communist ideas? Is the
strength of these images already gone? How does our
generation, born after the revolution, reads these images?
these are some of the questions we tried to raise with this
fake remnant of the 25th of April.
“Jusqu’ici tout va bien”
Plumba Art Gallery - Oporto, 2006
(...) In the earth perspective of the immigrant, nomadic or new barbarian,
the wall’s challenge is to overcome it. In the case of the Berlin Wall, the
largest part of attempts were well documented, the most creative, are
divided into two conflicting styles: overcoming the barrier by underground
(digging tunnels) and overcome it by above (floating). The boat in this
exhibition, wishing machine, is part of this second tradition, a tradition
that seeks to circumvent the security by rising up from the ground. The
reference to 'Melilla Trench' (double or triple barrier with 6m height,
which seeks to prevent the migration flow) is direct, even because it
combines its intent with the Mediterranean Sea.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=376
“Europe”
With the help of several volunteers, after and international call to participation,
2006-08 ... several photographs were received with people hitchhiking to
Europe.
First Image presented in the Plumba Art Gallery, Oporto, within the
exhibition ‘Jusqu'ici tout va bien’.
Then Italy and Slovenia, the last is from United Kingdom, for André
Sousa’s project at Spike Island - Bristol, 2008.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?paged=17
“Bonjardim”
a performance by
Carla Cruz and Ângelo Ferreira de Sousa
@ “a Sala” _ Oporto, 2nd/3rd March _ 2007
with:
Anabela Sousa [days 1,2]
José Pedro Ferraz [1]
Silvano Miguel [2]
As a response to the invitation to present a performance
at A Sala, we decided to organise a ‘private view’ atmosphere
but instead of being there to host we invited actors to act as our
proxies. These had previous instructions in order to act as
Carla and Ângelo. Knowing exactly which kind of relation we
have to the expected audience. Thus we commented on the
restrictiveness of the ‘alternative art circuits’.
http://www.angeloferreiradesousa.net/blog/?page_id=489
“Triumph des Wunsches”
German: Triumph of Desire
Viseu - Portugal / AH Art Gallery
at “Antimonumentos”
curator: Miguel von Hafe Pérez
The title is a reference to Leni Riefenstahl's film
Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film
made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party.
3 supermarket trolleys/ light