ANA DE ALMEIDA
“Ficou
a ver
passar
navios.”
#ARTS-BASED RESEARCH #ARCHITECTURE #COMMONS #INSTALLATION #SPACE #MULTIMEDIA #IDENTITY #PERFORMANCE
#NEO-COLONIAL #VIDEO #GENDER
BIO. Ana de Almeida (b.1987) is an artist and author from Lisbon, currently based in Vienna. She is a member of the artists’
collective dienstag abendof
of VBKÖ and of the Interndinner collective against precarization of work in the cultural field. Her artistic practice addresses memory and remembering processes, narrative constructions that connect space and subject, and plurispatial and multilayered narratives in general.
Ana de Almeida is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna, pursuing a doctoral thesis about the production of images in the 1974—1989 inter-revolutionary space between the Carnation and the Velvet Revolutions.
Ana de Almeida is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna, pursuing a doctoral thesis about the production of images in the 1974—1989 inter-revolutionary space between the Carnation and the Velvet Revolutions.
Ana de Almeida, Alicja Rogalskaand & Vanja Smiljanic
NOVA. Future thoughts on surviving together (2020 AT)
Live Action Role Play
In the future, gender inequality was erased. Nova is a multitude of newly born, radically inclusive and self-managed communities. Heterogeneous in their forms of commoning and social organization, Nova share a vow to never let oppression in any form rise again. Nova. Future thoughts on surviving together is a feminist futurist LARP - Live Action Role Play by Ana de Almeida, Alicja Rogalska and Vanja Smiljanić; directed towards feminist and queer-feminist activists based in Vienna. NOVA is a day of speculative gaming aimed at sharing survival strategies, exercising solidarity and intersectionality, creating solidarity networks and forming new alliances between different emancipatory movements. Together, we created a piece of feminist political fiction - a work in progress and a world free of patriarchal oppression in the making.
With: VBKÖ, Saloon Wien, Kunst & Kind, Latinxs Unidxs, Kültür Gemma, Cine Collective, Mala Sirena, female:pressure.
A Casa / The House The flat / Die Fläche (2018 PT)
MDF, stucco-lustro, stereo sound 42'5'' looped
Likewise a sculpture, A Casa (The House) shares the aesthetic and architectonic language of the House Wittgenstein in Vienna. The two volumes are a transposition and folding down of two of its architectonic elements: a window and the vestibule door. They serve as display for documental material such as letters and photos and incorporate an audio piece with interviews led by the artist. The surface is covered by stucco-lustro, a coating technique proliferating in Vienna on the turn to the 20th century, similar to how could the original coating of the walls of the House Wittgenstein have looked like before they were painted white after World War II. The highlighting of the stucco-lustro architectonic detail points out to a fundamental discovery for the understanding of the house as aesthetic experiment in which the house interiors, composed by materials which evoke extreme hardness, seem to dematerialize through the highly reflecting properties of the stucco walls.
Photos: © Ana de Almeida & Stephanie Misa
Untitled (Yellow) (2017 PT)
Wall, yellow paint, memorabilia, diashow, stereo sound
A cooperation between Ana de Almeida (PT/AT) and Stephanie Misa (PH/AT) . This is a project about landscape as formal and informal disposition of elements. Coordinates. An arrangement, a hierarchy: borders and de-limitations, transpositions and transgressions, frames and their inside-outside, margins, and of course landscape — of the geographical, political, personal, and emotional nature. Edouard Glissant’s Traité du Tout-Monde. (Poétique IV), calls it archipelagic thinking, a group of islands that lends its topography to an alternative imaginary: a reassessment of the insularity of bound cultures, of nation-states, and the heaviness of “continental thought”. The archipelago is an alternative imaginary, one that posits that identity could be as a conglomeration of islands (composed of many, yet is one). Identity formation, embodiment, complex colonial histories, evolution, interconnectedness, diaspora and change — Oh to dispell the oppressive idea of nationalistic wholeness!
CHARLOTTE
GASH
“He makes us laugh to make us learn. There’s salvation in that.”
- John Lahr,
discussing Joe Orton’s play Loot
#COMMONS #LANGUAGE
#PERFORMANCE #SCULPTURE #VIDEO
Charlotte Gash (b. 1994) is a British artist living and working in Vienna (AT). She studied Sculpture BA at Wimbledon College of Arts (UAL, London) and is currently completing her MA in Performative Kunst (Akademie der Bildender Kunst, Vienna). Gash takes inspiration from humorous, everyday situations, and translates them through the imitation of popular culture, whether it be through the style of a play, TV show, or mockumentary. Gash’s work takes the form of text, sculpture, performance and video.
Breeder or Sucker, The Tv Show (2022)
Video
Breeder or Sucker; The TV Show is a 40 minute video work, in the style of a TV show. The production is an art school based narrative, following the lives and failures of art school students. The viewer watches a group of young people who are struggling to secure an education; to be offered exhibitions; and to get laid. Each episode is played out through the eyes of Charlotte
Gash, a character based on the artist’s semi-autobiographical experiences, as she attempts to make a TV show about being in art school, but distractions are slowing her down. The Breeder or Sucker; the TV show delves into the mundane “everyday” aspects of being an artist, overly dramatising the indulgent lifestyle of procrastinating and partying. The series is made up of 10 scripts, which will be staggered into 10 “episodes,” each 30-40 minutes in length. The scripts satirises situations of privilege and failure within the art school system, whilst unapologetically commenting on female sexuality
I Might As Well Be A Lemon (2019)
Performance / Video
I Might as Well be a Lemon is a 50 minute performance which is based on the structure of a play. It follows the Character Charlotte, whom finds herself in situations where she “feels like a lemon”; due to being talked over, patronised, and ignored. The set design and props imitates real life objects made from cardboard and plaster, accompanied with painted canvas backdrops for each scene.
The documentation of the Performance is in the form of photographs, as well as a trailer in the form of a Behind the Scenes mockumentary style video work. Behind the Scenes imitates the confidence and delusion which some artists portray when discussing their work.
Gash has adapted the script from a documentary by male artist Adam Green, called Aladdin: Behind the Scenes. Gash is fascinated by the way Adam Green describes himself as a genius and creator of “ready-made” aesthetic. Gash uses the voices of the performers in the play to speak through the cardboard props, to accentuate the absurdity.
Photos: © Ursula Maria Probst
Breeder or Sucker (2019)
Performance / Video
Breeder or Sucker is a Performance in the style of a play, which follows art students finding openings; drugs and relationships. The performance is about an hour and a half long. The documentation is executed in the form of photo documentation, and a video in the style of a movie trailer.
Originating as a script, the characters perform with the text whilst interacting with the cardboard and plaster stage design. The narrative follows Charlotte and her friends attend openings, discuss art, texts, and sex. The characters discuss typical topics that white middle class art students would, and later sexual encounters.
Gash uses a humorous approach to highlight situations of dominance and power between the sexes, most notably in the “Orgasm Support Groups.” Inspired by the artists personal experiences, Breeder or Sucker attempts to satirise certain behaviours within the artistic cultural sphere, and the art world in general.