A Tale of Ingestion

Curated by Margarida Mendes

Opening June 21st 2018

Just as the stomach and viscera are extensions of our brain and nervous system, so too is the planet filled with organisms that metabolize its ecosystems. Blankets of fungi cover the intimate subsoil of forests with mycelium, interconnecting trees and other beings in an ample digestive system that can reach an extension of 970 hectares in a single body, as is the case in the mountains of Oregon. Elsewhere, we discover 420 million year old fossils of fungi – the prototaxites – which have populated earthly landscapes since the Paleozoic era. We study the cellular intelligence of slime mold, a curious matter that makes adaptive spatial decisions according to its survival conditions, developing intelligent pathways which may contribute to the development of artificial intelligence systems.

These fungal universes ferment our imaginary, broadening our understanding of bodily liminality. At the same time they remind us that all ecosystems are interrelated in a symbiotic manner, under a condition of mutual co-development, in which different species form assemblages and generate new symbiotic entities. This reframing of our perception of beings and the world destabilizes our ecological conceptions, reconfiguring the notions of parasite and host, prey and predator, unity and community. We are invited for example, through the work of Peter Zin, to intervene in our surroundings in a conscious way, taking into consideration the lessons of the Native American Iroquois people, whose Constitution defends the law of the “Seven Generations” recommending that our life and work decisions should take into account the benefit of the seventh generation to follow us. But these will not be the only lessons that such a sensory and metabolic dérive inspires.

A Tale of Ingestion, inaugurates the summer solstice with an exhibition that includes works exploring metabolic fictions and the cosmology of matter itself. This invitation gathers different generations of artists and poets who navigate between psychedelia, ecology, abstraction and romantic conceptualism. The triggering image and figure of thought is the Egyptian goddess Nut, who metamorphizes into a cow and swallows the sun, moon and cosmos at night to give birth to them the next day, thus digesting the whole universe cyclically.

In the first room, we are presented with a large painting-installation by Alma Heikkilä (1984, FI), titled Pollen grains, fungal spores, bacteria, mycelium, cysts, algal filaments and spores, lichens, insects and their parts, plants and animal tissues and several other microorganisms (2017) which refers to small particles invisible to the human eye that float in the air and travel through our lungs. Alma Heikkilä’s practice is developed at several scales, from the pictorial – in her explorations of abstraction through immersion in close- ups – to the ecological – in her work with the Finnish association Mustarinda, involving artists and researchers in projects to promote the ecological revitalization of society.

Downstairs, we also find pleural sculptures by David Horvitz (19??, US), made of blown glass containing A single breath of air (2016). An earlier version of the work was produced for the Volcano Extravaganza festival on the island of Stromboli in 2016, and the spheres were thrown into the night waters of the Mediterranean in a full moon ritual conducted during a boat journey. Creating a conceptual multiverse, where new species can couple and develop their habitat, these aether sculptures hide throughout the exhibition space. It is worth remembering the artist’s obsession with mushroom collecting and plant names,

and how directly this contact with nature in his daily life contributes to the vital matter and lexicon of his body of work.

Lupo Borgonovo (1985, IT) presents two sets of sculptures, Ornithology I (2015) and S (2015). His works are often elaborated as stream of consciousness exercises, testing the limits of materiality while defying symbolic perceptions. In S (2015), we are entangled in a series of viscous casts with impressions of different types of animal skin, upon which we can project animals, or our own guts. In these sculptures, the distinction between the exterior and interior of the mould is diffuse, appealing to the visitor’s imagination and navigation of his/her own interstitium.

On the table, we find a bronze and marble sculpture by Carlos Monléon (1983, ES). This is a prototype for a wood fired oven reconfigured in the form of the digestive system and viscera. This prototype is part of a series of sculptures that the artist is developing following his research on ingestion, fermentation and bacterial universes, which materially elaborate his reflections on the digestive system and distributed cognition.

Mumtazz (1970, PT) presents a series of drawings with imaginary bodies and kaleidoscopic figures. These are part of an extensive body of graphic work which is rarely shown, where the artist develops her pictorial and visual lexicon through a poetic reconfiguration of the real, based on the symbiotic borders of metamorphosing matter. With kinetic preponderance, these figures take into account the plural and oneiric universe of animation, from Paradjanov to Švankmajer, but also report on the archetypal journeys to be found in the writings and paintings of Jodorowsky, Jung, and Khalo.

Peter Zin,(1947, SE) is a tree planter, poet, and free jazz musician. His talent for improvisation has passed through as distant geographies as Senegal and Canada. His teachings draw inspiration from the generation of Buckminster Fuller and Stewart Brand, and have influenced activists and ecologists across the Iberian peninsula, introducing methods of permaculture and ecological revision that explore the resilience of the Earth and its resources in a conscious way. On the wall of the gallery is displayed a selection of his extensive collection of flag-manifestos, that will be shown in full at the 4th edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial in September 2018. Accompanying this, we present Visible Hand, a recent poetry book, which includes a refined compendium of ideas and ecological provocations.

Until August 25th 2018

Margarida Mendes (Lisbon, 1985) is a curator, educator and activist. In 2009 she founded The Barber Shop project space in Lisbon, hosting a programme of seminars and residencies dedicated to artistic and philosophical research. Exploring the overlap between cybernetics, philosophy, sciences and experimental film, her personal research investigates the dynamic transformations of the environment and its impact on societal structures and cultural production. In 2016 she joined the curatorial team of the 11th Gwangju Biennale and developed the pilot program of escuelita, an informal school at Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid. Currently she is co-curating a school and exhibition on the metabolism of digestion for the 4th Istanbul Design Biennale A School of Schools, opening this September.

—

A Tale of Ingestion

Curated by Margarida Mendes

21.06.18 – 25.08.18

Assim como o estômago e as vísceras são uma extensão do nosso cérebro e sistema nervoso, também o planeta se encontra repleto de organismos que metabolizam os seus ecossistemas. Mantos de fungos cobrem o subsolo íntimo das florestas com micélio, interligando árvores e outros seres num amplo sistema digestivo que chega a atingir a extensão de 970 hectares por um só corpo — nas montanhas de Oregon, por exemplo — ao mesmo tempo que descobrimos fósseis de fungos gigantes com 420 milhões de anos – os prototaxites – que povoavam as paisagens terrestres já desde a era paleozoica. Neste momento estudamos a inteligência celular do slime mold (bolor limoso), uma curiosa matéria que toma decisões espaciais adaptativas às suas condições de sobrevivência desenvolvendo percursos inteligentes, o que poderá interferir no desenvolvimento de sistemas de inteligência artificial.

Estes universos fúngicos fermentam o nosso imaginário, ampliando o nosso entendimento de corpo para além da sua fronteira liminar. Ao mesmo tempo relembram-nos de como todos os ecossistemas estão inter-relacionados de forma simbiopoiética, sob uma condição de co-desenvolvimento mútuo, onde diferentes espécies se formam em assemblage gerando novas entidades simbióticas. Este re-enquadramento da nossa percepção de seres e mundo destabiliza as nossas concepções ecológicas, revisitando a noção de parasita e hospedeiro, presa e predador, unidade e comunidade. Somos convidados, por exemplo, através do trabalho de Peter Zin a intervir no que nos rodeia de forma consciente seguindo as lições do povo nativo americano Iroquois, que defende na sua Constituição a lei das “Sete Gerações”, a qual estipula que todas as nossas decisões de vida e trabalho deverão ter em conta o benefício da sétima geração vindoura. Mas estes não serão os únicos ensinamentos que uma dérive sensorial e metabólica nos poderá suscitar.

A Tale of Ingestion inaugura no solstício de verão uma exposição encenada que inclui trabalhos que exploram ficções metabólicas e a cosmologia da própria matéria. A convite, são reunidas diferentes gerações de artistas e poetas que navegam entre o psicadelismo, a ecologia, a abstracção e o conceptualismo romântico. A imagem de partida é a deusa egípcia Nut, que se metamorfoseia em forma de vaca e engole o sol, a lua e o cosmos durante a noite, para lhes dar à luz no dia seguinte, digerindo assim todo o universo.

Na primeira sala somos apresentados a uma grande pintura-instalação de Alma Heikkilä (1984, FI) Pollen grains, fungal spores, bacteria, mycelium, cysts, algal filaments and spores, lichens, insects and their parts, plants and animal tissues and several other microorganisms (2017), que se refere a pequenas partículas invisíveis ao olho humano que flutuam no ar e viajam pelos nossos pulmões. Alma Heikkilä desenvolve uma obra que intervém a várias escalas, não apenas pictóricas, desenvolvendo o seu trabalho em abstracção a partir de close ups, mas também através do seu trabalho ecológico na associação finlandesa Mustarinda, que envolve artistas e investigadores em projectos que promovem a revitalização ecológica integrada da sociedade.

Já no andar de baixo, encontramos as esculturas pleurais de David Horvitz (19??, US), fabricadas em vidro soprado contendo A single breath of air (uma única exalação de ar) (2016). Uma versão das mesmas foi produzida por ocasião do festival Volcano

Extravaganza, na ilha de Stromboli em 2016, sendo atiradas ao Mediterrâneo numa travessia de barco durante um ritual em noite de lua cheia. Criando um multiverso conceptual, onde novas espécies podem acoplar e desenvolver o seu habitat, estas esculturas de aether escondem-se pelo espaço. É de notar a obsessão do artista em coleccionar cogumelos e nomes de plantas, constituindo a partir do contacto com a natureza no seu quotidiano a matéria vital e o léxico do seu corpo de trabalho.

Lupo Borgonovo (1985, IT) apresenta um conjunto de esculturas, Ornithology I (2015), S (2015). As suas obras, frequentemente elaboradas num exercício de stream of consciousness, testam os limites materiais do visível e desafiam percepções simbólicas. Em S (2015) estamos perante uma série de moldes viscosos com impressões de diferentes tipos de pele animal, onde podemos projectar animais ou as nossas próprias entranhas. Nestas esculturas, a distinção entre o exterior e interior do molde é difusa, apelando à a imaginação do visitante a navegação do próprio interstício.

Na mesa podemos encontrar uma escultura em bronze e mármore de Carlos Monléon (1983, ES), um protótipo para um forno de lenha que o artista planeia construir com a forma reconfigurada do sistema digestivo e vísceras. O mesmo faz parte de uma série de esculturas que o artista vem a desenvolver na sequência da sua investigação sobre ingestão, fermentação e universos bacterianos, uma elaboração material a partir das suas reflexões sobre a união entre o sistema digestivo e a cognição distribuída.

Mumtazz (1970, PT) apresenta uma série de desenhos com corpos imaginários e figuras caleidoscópicas. Estes fazem parte de um extenso corpo de obra gráfica raramente mostrado, onde a artista desenvolve o seu léxico pictórico e visual a partir de uma reconfiguração poética do real e das fronteiras simbióticas da matéria em metamorfose. Os seus desenhos, por vezes cinéticos, têm em conta o universo plural e onírico da animação, quer de Paradjanov ou Švankmajer, mas também aludem a viagens arquetípicas pelos escritos e pinturas de Jodorowsky, Jung, ou mesmo Khalo.

Peter Zin (1947, SE) é plantador de árvores, poeta e músico de free jazz. O seu talento plural para a improvisação já passou por pontos tão distantes como o Senegal ou o Canadá. Os seus ensinamentos tomam inspiração na geração de Buckminster Fuller e Stewart Brand, e tem influenciado gerações de activistas e ecologistas pela Península Ibérica fora, introduzindo métodos de permacultura e crítica ecológica que exploram a resiliência da terra e os seus recursos de forma ímpar. Na parede da galeria podemos encontrar uma selecção da sua extensa colecção de bandeiras que será mostrada por completo na 4a edição da Bienal de Design de Istanbul em Setembro de 2018. Na mesa expomos a sua recente edição de poesia Visible Hand, um depurado compêndio de ideias e provocações ecológicas.

—

Margarida Mendes (1985, PT) é curadora, educadora e activista. Em 2009 fundou o espaço de projectos The Barber Shop em Lisboa, coordenando um programa de seminários e residências dedicado à investigação artística e filosófica. A sua pesquisa – com enfoque no cruzamento da cibernética, filosofia, ecologia e filme experimental – explora as transformações dinâmicas do ambiente e o seu impacto nas estruturas sociais e no campo da produção cultural. Em 2016 integrou na equipa curatorial da 11a Gwangju Biennale, na Coreia do Sul e co-digiriu a temporada piloto de escuelita, uma escola informal no Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid. Actualmente é co-curadora de uma escola e exposição sobre metabolismo e digestão integrante na 4a Bienal de Design de Istanbul, “A School of Schools” a inaugurar em Setembro.