Augusto Alves da Silva
30 Jan - 28 Mar 2010
AUGUSTO ALVES DA SILVA
"Iberia"
MUSAC shall exhibit Portuguese artist Augusto Alves da Silva’s
installation Iberia until 28 March.
• This exhibition is the fruit of a collaborative project between MUSAC and the Serralves Foundation of Porto.
Installation: Iberia
Artist: Augusto Alves da Silva (1963, Lisbon)
Venue: Auditorium vestibule, MUSAC
MUSAC OFF Project: A collaborative project between MUSAC and the Serralves Foundation of Porto
Dates: 30 January - 28 March, 2010.
* Iberia is one of the works in the exhibition Sem saída / Ensaio sobre Optimismo, curated by João Fernandes at the Museu Serralves (23 October, 2009 - 31 January, 2010)
From 30 January to 28 March 2010 and within the framework of its 5th anniversary events programme, the Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art (MUSAC) shall host Iberiaists of the 1990s. In Iberia, viewers will be confronted with a random projection of more than 5000 images captured by the artist in the course of a journey by jeep across Spain. In his installation, Alves da Silva combines snapshots taken using a device mounted on the windscreen of his 4x4, which create the impression of riding in the vehicle, with live sounds of Spanish radio stations he tuned into along the way.
This piece shall be shown at MUSAC thanks to a collaboration agreement signed in September 2009 between the Castilla y León Regional Government Culture and Tourism Council and the Serralves Foundation of Oporto. The piece pertains to Augusto Alves da Silva’s solo exhibition Sem saída/Ensaio sobre Optimismo, held at the Museu Serralves and curated by the museum’s director João Fernandes.
Excerpt from the Sem saída/Ensaio sobre Optimismo exhibition catalogue, written by curator João Fernandes:
“... Iberia emanates from a journey across Spain’s back roads (and dirt roads) by jeep. The artist rigged up a device which secured the camera to the jeep, allowing the journey to be shot from the position of the windscreen, giving the viewer the sensation of riding inside the vehicle, with the images coming at him. After editing – a process of framing and cropping each snapshot – the resulting thousands of photos are randomly cinemascoped onto a giant screen. The projection is accompanied by a streamed transmission of sounds from various Spanish radio stations, similar to those the artist tuned into over the course of the journey. Reminiscent of a movie by Sergio Leone, who shot many of his films in Spain, the scale of the images is epic, and the marvellous dimension of the journey, quixotic.
...Most of these images are desertscapes. Almost all of them lack any human presence, transforming any imprint or vestige of that human presence into an event...This relationship between the event and the non-event is recognisable in other works by Augusto Alves da Silva, such as Estrada em Obra (Motorway under Construction), imbuing the work with a unique narrative. At variance with this work, in Iberia there is only one possible road to follow, there is no past and no going back. A village in the distance, a cyclist, a girl running, bales of hay, birds taking flight, fallen trees at the roadside, a strip-club called Sky, a bull or a goat crossing the roadway, are all examples of those mini-events that give a glimpse of a possible narrative to this no beginning – and no end – route. The images seem to remind us that there is no landscape devoid of perspective nor traces of human life. At the same time, the photographs are a consequence of a detour from the typical “trip” defined by contemporary society: conventional roads or motorways, only briefly appearing here, are symbolised by the edge of a traffic light or the trace of a motorway parallel to the path being followed.”
...
• The installation can be viewed during regular museum hours, except those when other cultural events are being held in the auditorium.
"Iberia"
MUSAC shall exhibit Portuguese artist Augusto Alves da Silva’s
installation Iberia until 28 March.
• This exhibition is the fruit of a collaborative project between MUSAC and the Serralves Foundation of Porto.
Installation: Iberia
Artist: Augusto Alves da Silva (1963, Lisbon)
Venue: Auditorium vestibule, MUSAC
MUSAC OFF Project: A collaborative project between MUSAC and the Serralves Foundation of Porto
Dates: 30 January - 28 March, 2010.
* Iberia is one of the works in the exhibition Sem saída / Ensaio sobre Optimismo, curated by João Fernandes at the Museu Serralves (23 October, 2009 - 31 January, 2010)
From 30 January to 28 March 2010 and within the framework of its 5th anniversary events programme, the Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art (MUSAC) shall host Iberiaists of the 1990s. In Iberia, viewers will be confronted with a random projection of more than 5000 images captured by the artist in the course of a journey by jeep across Spain. In his installation, Alves da Silva combines snapshots taken using a device mounted on the windscreen of his 4x4, which create the impression of riding in the vehicle, with live sounds of Spanish radio stations he tuned into along the way.
This piece shall be shown at MUSAC thanks to a collaboration agreement signed in September 2009 between the Castilla y León Regional Government Culture and Tourism Council and the Serralves Foundation of Oporto. The piece pertains to Augusto Alves da Silva’s solo exhibition Sem saída/Ensaio sobre Optimismo, held at the Museu Serralves and curated by the museum’s director João Fernandes.
Excerpt from the Sem saída/Ensaio sobre Optimismo exhibition catalogue, written by curator João Fernandes:
“... Iberia emanates from a journey across Spain’s back roads (and dirt roads) by jeep. The artist rigged up a device which secured the camera to the jeep, allowing the journey to be shot from the position of the windscreen, giving the viewer the sensation of riding inside the vehicle, with the images coming at him. After editing – a process of framing and cropping each snapshot – the resulting thousands of photos are randomly cinemascoped onto a giant screen. The projection is accompanied by a streamed transmission of sounds from various Spanish radio stations, similar to those the artist tuned into over the course of the journey. Reminiscent of a movie by Sergio Leone, who shot many of his films in Spain, the scale of the images is epic, and the marvellous dimension of the journey, quixotic.
...Most of these images are desertscapes. Almost all of them lack any human presence, transforming any imprint or vestige of that human presence into an event...This relationship between the event and the non-event is recognisable in other works by Augusto Alves da Silva, such as Estrada em Obra (Motorway under Construction), imbuing the work with a unique narrative. At variance with this work, in Iberia there is only one possible road to follow, there is no past and no going back. A village in the distance, a cyclist, a girl running, bales of hay, birds taking flight, fallen trees at the roadside, a strip-club called Sky, a bull or a goat crossing the roadway, are all examples of those mini-events that give a glimpse of a possible narrative to this no beginning – and no end – route. The images seem to remind us that there is no landscape devoid of perspective nor traces of human life. At the same time, the photographs are a consequence of a detour from the typical “trip” defined by contemporary society: conventional roads or motorways, only briefly appearing here, are symbolised by the edge of a traffic light or the trace of a motorway parallel to the path being followed.”
...
• The installation can be viewed during regular museum hours, except those when other cultural events are being held in the auditorium.