Portuguese Official Representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition LaBiennale di Venezia

For the 53rd International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Portugal will be represented by the artists João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva with an installation of their works at Fondaco dell’Arte curated by Natxo Checa. The pavilion is commissioned and produced by the Directorate-General for Arts of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture.

“Employing an overlapping technique of fictional layers, literal as well as metaphoric, the artists weave a series of narratives into their works. In order to understand certain phenomenon related to perceptions of nature, they propose an architecture of philosophical discoveries that translate themselves into an elaborate notion of the transitory as an essential idea of truth. From the perspective of knowledge of being – ontology – to an understanding of events – phenomenology – these works provide an opportunity to observe presence related to exception as a strategy. This procedure acknowledge operations such as the verification of the minimum visible or the dissection of the indiscernible” states curator Natxo Checa. He continues “The display of the duo’s work reminds of a museum environment, typical that of natural and human sciences, and is based on an induced scenographic route. At times documentary, other times para-scientific, the viewer is confronted with a contemporary proposal that produces a collection of derisory notions on the real”.

João Maria Gusmão (Lisbon, 1979) and Pedro Paiva (Lisbon, 1977) are artists of a new generation with a recent and unusually solid career. In the last decade the duo’s participation in international contexts such as the 27th Bienal de São Paulo, the 6th Mercosul Biennial, Manifesta 7, PhotoEspaña 08 along with exhibitions at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco and Kunstverein Hanover, among others, has contributed to the consolidation of their work. Upcoming are exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Inhotim Cultural Center, Minas Gerais.

Natxo Checa (Barcelona, 1968) is Director of Zé dos Bois (ZDB) Center for creation, production and diffusion of contemporary art in Lisbon. In partnership with ZDB, the artists and curator have collaborated on several projects: DeParamnésia (2001-2002), Magnetic Effluvium (2004-2006) and Abissology (2008).

The artists are represented by Galeria Graça Brandão, Lisbon, Galleria Zero, Milan and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo.