Umbigo #90
Dedicated to the theme of Celebratory Practices, Umbigo #90 is an edition that explores the fields of dance, clubs, raves, performance, ancestry and celebration. On the back, a special edition subordinated to the Porto Santo School, in close collaboration with PORTA 33, which establishes a link between art, pedagogy, ecology, community and architecture.
The covers were created by Tianzhuo Chen, Carla Filipe – also the artist of Interchanges Project (FLAD) At night, no archive – and, in the special edition, Duarte Belo.
The exhibition Rituals Reimagined: Global Perspectives on Spirituality in Contemporary Art, curated by Safia Dickersbach, is an incursion into rituals, traditional practices and their complex connection with contemporary cultures. An attentive follower of the art scene of the Global South, and as editor and founder of PRŌTOCOLLUM magazine, Dickersbach highlights how artists from this region “challenge the Western dichotomy between the sacred and the secular, the rational and the intuitive”.
In the written essays, contributions from Jorge Leandro Rosa, António Olaio and Lior Zisman Zalis; and in the visual essays, the Sonic Extinction project by Kalas Liebfried, Guy with sign by Felix Vong, the affective essay by Susana Mendes Silva and the extension of the densidade. e memória exhibition, at Brotéria, by Carlos Nogueira.
The Dialogues Project is signed by Elizabeth Prentis, this time in a frank conversation between the artist and the patriarchy – instead of the usual institutional mediation – and Caio Marcolini is the featured artist in the UmbigoLAB section, winner artist of the UmbigoLAB x Loulé Criativo residency.
João Silvério highlights the works of Inês Gonçalves and Vasco Araújo in the PLMJ Foundation Collection, and Luísa Salvador writes about the work Sun Tunnels (1973-76) by Nancy Holt. Filipa Rocha Nunes is the author of the poem that opens this edition.
Designed by the architect Raúl Chorão Ramalho, in one of the extraperipheral territories of Portugal, the Porto Santo School is a perfect testimony of modern Portuguese architecture and the community-driven and tireless work of Maurício Reis and Cecília Vieira de Freitas, founders of PORTA 33, who found in this deactivated building a way of working with the community and integrating it with contemporary art.
The section includes four texts written by Nuno Faria, Jorge Freitas Branco, Victor Mestre and Susana Fontinha and a large polyphonic essay written by Elsa Garcia and Joana Duarte, which includes the testimonies of the various artists who passed through this place and the historical perspective, cultural, social, ecological and artistic – Ana Tostões, Paulo David, Paulo Pires do Vale, Ricardo Carvalho, Nelson Veríssimo, Susana Fontinha, Cláudia Faria and Graça Alves. The visual essays were developed by Carolina Vieira and Mariana Viegas, and Francisco Janes. The entire Grand Essay is accompanied by photographs taken by Duarte Belo during various residencies in Porto Santo.
Presentations & Launches
October 7th at 6 pm – PLMJ Foundation, Lisbon
October 8th at 5 pm – Palácio Gama Lobo, Loulé
From October 10th to 13th – Miss Read – Art Publications Fair – Berlin
October 24th at 6 pm – Escola das Artes da Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto
November 16th – Escola da Vila, Porto Santo
January 17th – PORTA 33, Funchal