MUXIMA, by Alfredo Jaar + CONGA IRREVERSIBLE and POLARIS, by Los Carpinteros
"Muxima" (36')
"Irreversible Conga" (11'53'')
"Polaris" (10'40'')
4 Sep 2015 - 18:30
Archive-House (Gulbenkian Park)
Free admission
"Muxima" is an elegy to the people of Angola, an homage that begins with the film's title, Muxima, which means "heart" in Kimbundu, an indigenous language in Angola. Muxima is the product of several journeys Alfredo Jaar made to Angola. “Muxima is a visual poem divided into 10 verses. Each verse is structured like a haiku (short Japanese poem), based on only two or three themes, and highly economical in meaning. The aim is to express the maximum with the bare minimum, like those extraordinary short poems written by one of my favourite poets: Giuseppe Ungaretti.” (AJ)
"Muxima", 2005 / Director: Alfredo Jaar / Musicians: Beto de Almeida; Paulo de Oliveira; Os Kiezos, Produções Teta Lando; Ngola Ritmos, Buda Musique; Ruy Mingas, Strauss; Mario Rui Silva, Night & Day; Waldemar Bastos, Luaka Bop / Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York, and the artist.
"Conga Irreversible" documents the eponymous performance carried out by this duo of artists in 2012 during the 11th Havana Biennial. More than one hundred participants, apart from the thousands of people who strolled through the centric Paseo del Prado, a space in which the first comparsas from which this popular Cuban celebration originated marched, participate in the video. The piece turns the sense of the choreography and music on its head and eliminates de explosion of bright colours that are characteristic of a traditional comparsa, whose festive and collective nature becomes a tool for cultural communication.
"Conga Irreversible", 2012 / Courtesy of Ivorypress, Madrid / Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, and Galeria Fortes Vilaça / São Paulo.
"Polaris" describes the voyage of a musician who carries his drums through the Pyrenees. Also shot in a real setting, it is essentially a sound piece that explores great areas of silence and noise, where the notion of pilgrimage takes on a central role as an abstract and personal ritual.
"Polaris", 2014 / Courtesy of Ivorypress, Madrid.