32 x 24 cm (each)
Imagem manipulada com saída em papel fotográfico Photo Galeria Vermelho Proposal to create a fictional portrait of an adolescent son/daughter based on mixing the photos of any couple.97 x 97 x 40 cm
Printed circuit, capacitors, mirrors Photo Galeria Vermelho5’
Monochannel video, stereo Photo Video still Images of people in the position of police arrest were applied to Helsinki landscape.Variable dimensions
Installation – reflective tape and directional light
Photo Ding MusaThe word “EJECT”, written with reflective tape in three different plans, can only be seen from a specific point of view, where the light reflects off the wall and form a new plan.
750 x 750 cm
60 T5 Blue fluorescent lamps and 36 motorized mechanisms Photo Galeria Vermelho Motorized mechanism constantly moves 60 fluorescent lamps, simulating the movement of the waves. The waves on the surface of the sea, that seems to be the displacement of water, are in fact the displacement of the wave movement, without any displacement of water. “Zero Hidrográfico” (chart datum) is the international reference used to measure the ocean depths. The alteration of the seawater level is one of the main risks associated to the global warming, and its consequence is the raising of the global sea levels.12’
Sincronizes 2 channel video Photo Rafael Cañas47 x 70 x 7 cm (each)
Inkjet print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper 308g Photo Galeria VermelhoVariable dimentions
Kinetic installation composed of electric motor, slip ring, frequency inverter, printed circuit board, arduino and LEDs Photo Rafael Cañas80 x 85 x 3,8 cm
Industrial embroidery on rubbery fabric Photo Rafael Cañas In “Captcha” phrases taken from a dialogue of the film “2001: a Space Odyssey”, by Stanley Kubrick, were digitally distorted into the patterns of captcha: an acronym for the expression “completely automated public turing test to tell computers and humans apart.” The texts were produced by industrial embroidery machines programmed by a computer. In the film, the astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole find themselves at the mercy of their shipboard computer, which becomes increasingly human and begins to control their spacecraft.100 x 180 x 1.5 cm (each)
Laminnated glass in 3 layers with 4mm Photo Galeria Vermelho DNA presents images of professional fighters treated as impressions of the genetic code, which refers to the flow of blood in human bodies.Variable dimentions
Objects composed of 7 encyclopedias Photo Edouard Fraipont In “Deposição” [Deposition], the matter of disuse appears in the form of an accumulation of printed encyclopedias cut like topographic drawings to resemble stalagmites. They therefore refer to a sedimentation of materials that are detached from their original context and begin to structure a shape made up of residues. The Encyclopedia Britannica, published since 1771 in the UK, had 15 updated editions over 241 years, but in March 2012 it was announced the end of the publications printed on paper.12”
Video installation. projection on benches Photo Galeria Vermelho In “Espera” [Wait], the action takes place over benches, where shadows of two people who never meet are projected. Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, thus question the place of the viewer and the artwork, creating a zone of constant dynamic.52 + 32 + 30 cm
23‘ LCD monitor, media player, stainless steel and fluorescent light Photo Edouard Fraipont In “Bugado” [Bugged], the back of an LCD monitor was removed, making it semi-transparent. Behind the screen, the artist installed an energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulb. The monitor continues to work, though we also see the light bulb behind the image it is displaying. The image is that of flies that seem to be circling around the light bulb. One could interpret the piece as a vestige of a material culture. Thus, what is left functioning in this ruin is what allows us to see the nature around it, in this case, the image of the flies that circle the object.Variable dimentions
16 buckets, 06 tables, 02 benches, 16 speakers, 8 stereo amplifiers, wires and water Photo Galeria VermelhoVariable dimentions
16 buckets, 06 tables, 02 benches, 16 speakers, 8 stereo amplifiers, wires and water Photo Galeria Vermelho There is a point in a story where the conflict reaches its maximum tension and must be resolved, Chora Chuva presents the rain as a condition of transformation, transition, combined with an intimate relationship, the internal space, in this case, the exhibition space. Precarious and provisionally one tries to control this unstable situation. The piece is constituted by several containers positioned in the attempt to contain all the leaks in the room. In each bucket there is a speaker that at each beat vibrates a portion of water, visually and sonically recreating a water leak.2’15”
2 channel sincronized video, no sound Photo Galeria Vermelho In Duplo Singular, we see the image of two children symmetrically sharing a picnic. The video, divided into two channels, gradually reveals the loneliness of the two children as the camera moves vertically skyward.550 x 360 x 250 cm
Lamps, reactors, connectors and cables Photo Edouard Fraipont52 x 52 cm
Fiberglass board with copper drawing Photo Galeria VermelhoVariable dimentions
Wood (nautical MDF), metal structure, electronic device, light and sound Photo Galeria Vermelho72 x 72 x 4 cm
08 layers of passe-partout and 2 mm anti-reflective glass
Photo VermelhoEndorheic lakes from different regions are presented by their forms in contour lines through digital cut in museological papers of passe-partout, the glass representing the dimension of the water in these lakes are displaced into the frame indicating the current situation of the level of the reservoirs, due to fluctuations of weather conditions. One can see how the lakes have declined in size and dried up over the past few years due to human action.
Variable dimentions
35 automotive exhausts, 7 concrete bases, steel sheet, solenoids, arduins Photo Galeria Vermelho Exhaust pipes are parts whose main function is the elimination of gases and pollutants from the combustion of the engine, usually go unnoticed under the cars and are non-existent items in electric cars. The installation is composed of 35 exhaust pipes of different car models, positioned vertically simulating the tubes that make up a pipe organ - a musical instrument found in churches. A series of solenoids connected to the exhaust pipes are activated by electrical impulses generating sound stimulus.120 x 400 x 120 cm
Carbon steel object with electrostatic powder coating, RGB addressable tapes, controllers and source Photo Galeria VermelhoVariable dimentions
Silent pneumatic compressor, hoses, solenoid valves, rubber balloons, automation system based on microcontroller and cables Photo Ding MusaVariable dimentions
Video installation, back-projection suspended screen, video projector, overhead projector, transparency film, color filter, micro-fan, aquarium and water Photo William GomesVariable dimentions
Installation with virtual reality, computer, case, stool, VR glasses, receptionist, blue paint Photo Edouard Fraipont In the installation by Motta & Lima, the visitor enters a blue space where there is only a stool, a computer and a case. A receptionist assists the visitor to sit and to put on a pair of VR glasses - made for the Virtual Reality experience. When entering the virtual territory, the guest finds himself in the same room. However, he ceases to have a body and becomes just an observation point. Other attendees begin to enter the space and to observe the visitor, the logic of the art exhibition is reversed. The installation “Collective memory”, was created by Motta & Lima for the Museum of Possible Futures, an exhibition organized by Paulo Miyada during the Knowledge Olympics, in Brasília, in 2018. “The public loses its place as a spectator or activator of the work and assumes the place of the ‘thing’ to be seen, studied, from those very welldirected looks,” wrote Miyada about the installation“Of the many tasks that art has taken for itself in the history of mankind, one of the most persistent has been the making of representations of parcels of the world. Today, when not all art represents something and not everything that represents something is art, a work like that of Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima offers elaborate emulations of the real, be it with the most advanced or the simplest of technologies. The fundamental thing for artists is not to create replicas or simulations identical to the real, but to produce concrete systems that work in equivalent way to the phenomena that interest them” – Excerpt from “Contando ovelhas elétricas”, by Paulo Miyada.
The partnership between Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima (both born in São Paulo, Brazil, 1976) began in the late 1990s. Since then, their work has been presented in exhibitions such as Yano-a, at Galeria Claudia Andujar in Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho (2019-); Entreter, Farol Santander, São Paulo (2018); Construções e Geometrias, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia [MUBE], São Paulo,(2019); Amazonia. Thé Shaman and Mind of the Forest0, Musée d’histoire de Nantes, Nantes, France (2019); Confusing Public and Private, The Beijing’s Third Photo Biennial, Beijing (2018); Guangzhou Image Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong (2017), among others.
Their work is present in collection such as CIFO Art Foundation Collection, Miami; Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo and Coleção Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.
“Of the many tasks that art has taken for itself in the history of mankind, one of the most persistent has been the making of representations of parcels of the world. Today, when not all art represents something and not everything that represents something is art, a work like that of Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima offers elaborate emulations of the real, be it with the most advanced or the simplest of technologies. The fundamental thing for artists is not to create replicas or simulations identical to the real, but to produce concrete systems that work in equivalent way to the phenomena that interest them” – Excerpt from “Contando ovelhas elétricas”, by Paulo Miyada.
The partnership between Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima (both born in São Paulo, Brazil, 1976) began in the late 1990s. Since then, their work has been presented in exhibitions such as Yano-a, at Galeria Claudia Andujar in Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho (2019-); Entreter, Farol Santander, São Paulo (2018); Construções e Geometrias, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia [MUBE], São Paulo,(2019); Amazonia. Thé Shaman and Mind of the Forest0, Musée d’histoire de Nantes, Nantes, France (2019); Confusing Public and Private, The Beijing’s Third Photo Biennial, Beijing (2018); Guangzhou Image Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong (2017), among others.
Their work is present in collection such as CIFO Art Foundation Collection, Miami; Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz, Ribeirão Preto; Instituto Itaú Cultural, São Paulo and Coleção Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.
Motta & Lima
Gisela Motta, 1976, São Paulo. Leandro Lima, 1976, São Paulo
Live and work in São Paulo
Solo shows
2024
– Zero Hidrográfico – à deriva na incerteza – Casa Firjan – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Motta&Lima. Relâmpago – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2022
– Motta&Lima. Zero Hidrográfico – Sesc Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– The Falling Sky – Trinity Square Video – Toronto – Canadá
2020
– Xapiri – Cairns Art Gallery – Cairns – Austrália
– Zero Hidrográfico & Relâmpago – Museu de Artes e Ofícios – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– Memória Coletiva – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2019
– Yano-a – Galeria Claudia Andujar – Instituto Inhotim – Brumadinho – Brasil
2018
– Gisela Motta & Leandro Lima. Entreter – Farol Santander – São Paulo – Brasil
2017
– Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima: Verso – Young Projects Gallery – Los Angeles – EUA
– Psicose – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2016
– Controle Remoto – Fundação Ema Klabin – São Paulo – Brasil
– Contando Ovelhas Elétricas – Sesc Sorocaba, Sorocaba, BR
– Contando Ovelhas Elétricas – SESC Santo Amaro – São Paulo – Brasil
2015
– Chora-Chuva – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo Brasil
2013
– Espera – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – SP – Brasil
2012
– SOPRO – Sala A Contemporânea – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil [CCBB RJ] – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– ANTI-HORÁRIO – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – SP – Brasil
2011
– IN.SITU.AÇÕES – MAMAM no Patio – Recife – PE – Brasil
2010
– DIAL M FOR MURDER – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2009
– Sob Controle – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– DIAL M FOR MURDER – Centro Cultural Britânico – São Paulo – Brasil
2007
– Foreing Element – Hiap Project Room – Helsinki – Finlândia
– Passei-o [one day show] –Koh-I-Noor – Copenhagen – Dinamarca
2006
– Vivendo – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2005
– Programa Sítio – Base 7 – São Paulo – Brasil
2004
– Temporada de Projetos 2003/2004 – Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
1999
– Temporada de Projetos 1999/2000 – Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
Group shows
2024
– Na palma da mão [exposição ateliê] – Sesc Jundiaí – Jundiaí – Brasil
– Técnicas de diversão no campo da arte – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM SP) – São Paulo – Brasil
– Claudia Andujar. The End of the World – Deichtorhallen Hamburg – Hamburgo – Alemanha
– Smart Lights – Farol Santander – São Paulo – Brasil
– Amazonía: a BioCreativity Hub – IDB Cultural Center – Washington DC – EUA
2023
– Darwin: Origens e Evolução – Farol Santander – Porto Alegre – Brasil
– Smart Lights – Luzes Inteligentes – Farol Santander Porto Alegre – Porto Alegre – Brasil
– Casa no céu – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Na palma da mão – Sesc São Caetano – São Caetano – Brasil
– Elementar: fazer junto – Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM SP) – São Paulo – Brasil
– Ritos e Alegorias sobre Natureza – Galeria Zíper – São Paulo – Brasil
– Chão da praça: obras do acervo da Pinacoteca – Pinacoteca Contemporânea – São Paulo – Brasil
– Utopias e Distopias: um diálogo entre o acervo do MAM Bahia e a arte contemporânea brasileira – Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM Bahia) – Salvado – Brasil
2022
– Coração na aldeia, pés no mundo – Sesc Piracicaba – Piracicaba – Brasil
– Cem Anos Modernos – Museu da Imagem e do Som [MIS] – São Paulo – Brasil
– Ópera Citoplasmática – Museu Oscar Niemeyer [MON] – Curitiba – Brasil
– Mostra de Videodança: memória de um futuro – Sesc Sorocaba – Sorocaba – Brasil
– Condenado ao Moderno? – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz [IFF] – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Maquinações – Sesc Taubaté – Taubaté – Brasil
– Carlos Motta and Tiamat Legion Medusa. When I Leave this World – OCDChinatown – Nova York – EUA
– Forest: ancestry and dystopia – Fundación Pablo Atchugarry – Miami – EUA
2021
– Festival Hors Pistes. A ecologia das imagens: um passeio imersivo – Aliança Francesa Brasília – Brasília – Brasil
– 12ª edição da Bienal Sesc de Dança (online) – Sesc São Paulo – São Paulo – Brasil
– A outra realidade – Farol Santander – São Paulo – Brasil
– A Luta Yanomami. Cinema como aliado (mostra digital) – Sesc SP
– Zona da Mata – Museu de Arte Contemporânea [MAC USP] – São Paulo – Brasil
2020
– Tá me vendo? Tá me ouvindo? Narrativas do digital – Casa Niemeyer – Brasília – Brasil (mostra virtual)
– Dia, Noite, Noite. Coleção Andréa e José Olympio Pereira – Galpão da Lapa – São Paulo – Brasil
– O Ar que nos une – Museu Brasileiro de Escultura e Ecologia [MuBE] – São Paulo – Brasil
2019
– La lenta exploson de uma semilla – OTR Espacio de Arte – Madri – Espanha
– Ambages – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Feche os Olhos e Veja – Galeria Almeida Dale – São Paulo – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas na Coleção Itaú Cultural – Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM – RJ) – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– O Pequeno Colecionador – Carbono – Galeria – São Paulo – Brasil
– Maquinações 3.3 – Sesc Piracicaba – Piracicaba – Brasil
– Habitar liberdades – Solar dos Abacaxis – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Darwin, Origens & Evolução – Museu do Meio Ambiente – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– As vezes me sinto tão pequeno – Estar Móveis no Desing Week – São Paulo – Brasil
– Coleções no MuBE: Dulce e João Carlos de Figueiredo Ferraz. Construções e Geometrias – Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia MUBE) – São Paulo – Brasil
– Amazonia. Thé Shaman and Mind of the Forest – Musée d’histoire de Nantes – Nantes – França
2018
– YOYO. Tudo que vai volta – Sesc Taubaté – Taubaté – Brasil
– Maquinações – Artistas, Máquinas e a invenção do cotidiano – Sesc Carmo – São Paulo –Brasil
– 10ma. Bienal Internacional de Arte SIART – Museo Nacional de Arte – La Paz – Bolívia
– Museu dos Futuros Possíveis – Galeria do SESI – Vitória – Brasil
– Cinéphémere 2018 at LOOP Barcelona – Grand Palais – Barcelona – Espanha
– Maquinações – Sesc Palladium – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– Confusing Public and Private – The Third Beijing Photo Biennial – The Culture Industry Center of Beizhen – Pequim – China
– Claudia Andujar: Yano-a – Sesc Paraty – Paraty – Brasil
– Museu dos Futuros Possíveis – Olimpíada do Conhecimento 2018 – SENAI SESI CICB – Brasília – Brasil
– Maquinações – Oi Futuro Flamengo – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Paisagens Construídas – Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON) – Curitiba – Brasil
– Yoyo, tudo que vai volta – Sesc Belenzinho – São Paulo – Brasil
– #iff2018 – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (IFF) – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Esculturas para ouvir – Museu Brasileiro da Escultura e Ecologia (MUBE) – São Paulo – Brasil
2017
– IV Festival Internacional Cinema e Transcendência – CCBB Brasília – Brasília – Brasil
– Simultaneous Eidos. Guangzhou Image Triennial 2017 – Guangdong Museum of Art – Guangdong – China
– Brasil: de 1500 a 2013 & Entre documentário e ficção – Cine Jóia – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– On Desire / B3 Biennial of the Moving Image – B3 Festival Center – Frankfurt – Alemanha
– 7º Mostra de Arte Digital_2017 – Largo da Batata – São Paulo – Brasil
– Tempo Presente – Espaço Cultural Porto Seguro [ECPS] – São Paulo – Brasil
– synchroniCITIES: SP-BXL – Embaixada do Brasil – Bruxelas – Bélgica
– Ready Made in Brasil – Galeria de Arte do Sesi – Centro Cultural FIESP – São Paulo – Brasil
– Here the border is you – proyectosLA – Los Angeles – EUA
– Video Art In Latin America (Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA) – Laxart – Los Angeles – EUA
– Bienal Sur_La Mirada que se Separa de los Abraços – C.C. Haroldo Conti – Buenos Aires – Argentina
– Bienal Sur_Trazas Simultáneas – Espacio Cultural de la Embajada del Brasil – Buenos Aires – Argentina
– Frente a los Espejos – Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Genaro Pérez – Córdoba – Argentina
– Unsettled Artifacts: Technological Speculations from Latin America – SIGGRAPH 2017 – Los Angeles – EUA
– Amazonie. Le chamane et la pensée de la forêt – Muséum of Pointe-à-Callière – Montreal – Canadá
– Nada levarei quando morrer, aqueles que me devem cobrarei no inferno – Galpão VB – São Paulo – Brasil
– Quando o Rio virou Mar – Museu Histórico Nacional – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas na Coleção Itaú Cultural – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (IFF) – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– The Future isn’t what it used to be – Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) – Salt Lake City
– Sesc Cine Lounge na 20ª Mostra de Cinema de Tiradentes – Tiradentes – Brasil
2016
– Coletiva – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Festival de Cinema do Rio 2016 – IMS e CCBB Rio – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Contando Ovelhas Elétricas – SESC Sorocaba – Sorocaba – Brasil
– Zona de Perigo – Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães (MAMAM) – Recife – Brasil
– El Origen de la Noche. Sonido, Tiempo y Territorio Indígena – Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogotá – Colômbia
– Situações: a instalação no acervo da Pinacoteca – Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo – São Paulo – Brasil
– Zona de Perigo – Museu Oscar Niemeyer (MON) – Curitiba – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artista na Coleção Itaú Cultural – Filmes e Vídeos de Artista na Coleção Itaú Cultural – Fortaleza – Brasil
– Coletiva – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Soft Power. Arte Brasil – Kunsthal KAdE – Amersfoort – Holanda
– Amazonie. Le chamane et la pensée de la forêt – Musée d’ethnographie de Genève – Genebra – Suíça
– O Estado da Arte – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz (IFF) – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas na Coleção Itaú Cultural – Itaú Cultural – São Paulo – Brasil
– The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be – Project 924 ArtCenter – Miami – EUA
– Fronteira_Zero Hidrográfico – Red Bull Station – São Paulo – Brasil
2015
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas Coleção Itaú – Fundação Iberê Camargo – Porto Alegre – Brasil
– Fotos contam Fatos – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– A Arte e a Ciência: nós entre os extremos – Instituto Tomie Ohtake – São Paulo – Brasil
– Singularidades/Anotações: Rumos Artes Visuais 1998 – 2013 – Paço Imperial – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Migraciones (en el) arte contemporâneo – MUNTREF CAC – Buenos Aires – Argentina
– Mostra Rumos – Itaú Cultural – São Paulo – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas Coleção Itaú – Espaço Cultural Casa das Onze Janelas – Belém – Brasil
– Lights in Jerusalem – Old Cardo – Jerusalem – Israel
– Reverta – Arte e Sustentabilidade – Oca – Parque do Ibirapuera – São Paulo – Brasil
– Passei-o – Sesc Jundiaí – Jundiaí – Brasil
– SE LIGA! Percepções na Arte e Ciência – CCBB Rio – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Espectador em Trânsito – ArteSesc Uberlândia – Uberlândia – Brasil
2014
– Espectador em Trânsito – ArteSesc Venda Nova – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– GLOW Festival – Eindhoven – Holanda
– Espectador em Trânsito – ArteSesc Teófilo Otoni – Teófilo Otoni – Brasil
– Espectador em Trânsito – ArteSesc Juiz de Fora – Juiz de Fora – Brasil
– Singularidades/Anotações: Rumos Artes Visuais – Itaú Cultural – São Paulo – Brasil
– Verbo 2014. Mostra de Performance Arte (10ª ed.) – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Filmes e Vídeos de Artistas na Coleção do Itaú Cultural – Museu de Arte Moderna Aloísio Magalhães (MAMAM) – Recife – Brasil
– To See What is Coming – Largo das Artes – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Giro – Galeria Mamute – Porto Alegre – Brasil
– Paisagem Entrópica – Parque Villa Lobos – São Paulo – Brasil
– Momento Contemporâneo – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Vancouver Biennale – Vancouver – Canadá
2013
– A Imagem Adquiida – Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Goiás [MAC} – Goiânia – Brasil
– Coleção de Filmes e Vídeos Itaú Cultural – Museu Oscar Niemeyer – Curitiba – Brasil
– Natureza Amplificada – Pier Mauá – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Suspicious Minds – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– 14º FILE – Festival de Linguagem Eletrônica – Galeria de Arte do SESI – São Paulo – Brasil
– Reinventando o Mundo – Museu Vale – Vila Velha – Brasil
– Coleção de Filmes e Vídeos Itaú Cultural – Museu Nacional – Brasília – Brasil
– Bouillants #5 – Vern-sur-Seiche – Bretagne – França.
– Coletiva – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2012
– Nam June Paik Award 2012 – Kunstmuseum Bochum – Bochum – Alemanha
– Instante : experiência/acontecimento am Arte e Tecnologia – SESC Santo André – Santo André – Brasil
– Caos e Ordem – CEC2012 – Fábrica ASA – Guimarães – Portugal
– Zero Hdrográfico – Kunsthaus19-21 – Pforzheim – Alemanha
– É preciso confrontar as imagens vagas com os gestos claros – Oficina Cultural Oswaldo de Andrade – São Paulo – Brasil
– Tecnofagias / III Mostra 3M de Arte Digital – Instituto Tomie Ohtake – São Paulo – Brasil
– AVer – Atelier Aberto – Campinas – São Paulo – Brasil, 2012.
– CREATORS PROJECT – Moinho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Território de Contato – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– LOOP Fair – Barcelona – Espanha
– ALÉM DA FORMA: Plano, matéria, espaço e tempo – Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Instante: Experiência/Acontecimento – SESC Pinheiros – São Paulo – Brasil
– Supertemporal – International Video Art Today – Kulturhuset Museum – Estocolmo – Suécia
– Tão Longe, tão perto – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Retratos Performáticos – SESC Vila Mariana – São Paulo – Brasil
– Remote Viewing – Kulturhuset Museum – Estocolmo – Suécia
– Zero Hidrográfico – Kunsthaus19-21 – Pforzheim – Alemanha
2011
– Arte Pará 2011 – Fundação Romulo Maiorama – Pará – Brasil
– Estou Aqui – Galeria Marília Razuk – São Paulo – Brasil
– 8ª Bienal do Mercosul: Extranatureza – Porto Alegre – Brasil
– Meu Meio – Marco Universal II – SESC Interlagos – São Paulo – Brasil
– 17º Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea SESC_Videobrasil – Sesc Belenzinho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Instante: Experiência / Acontecimento – SESC Campinas – Campinas – Brasil
– Espectador em Transito – SESC Jaraguá do Sul – Jaraguá do Sul – Brasil
– Assim é, se lhe parece –Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
– Jogos de Guerra – Caixa Cultural Rio de Janeiro – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Höhenrausch 2: Bridges in the Sky – OK Center for Contemporary Art – Linz – Austria
– Espectador em Transito – SESC Horto – Campo Grande – Brasil
– Espectador em Transito – SESC Centro – Porto Velho – Brasil
– Geração 00 – A nova fotografia Brasileira – SESC Belenzinho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Virada Cultural “dos Reis e Rainhas” – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Medida de Fluxo do Pistão Giratório – Sesc Ribeirão Preto – São Paulo – Brasil
2010
– Do your actions mention your heart’s intentions? – Design Space – Tel Aviv – Israel
– RESTRAINT – SESC Pinheiros – São Paulo – Brasil
– Água na Oca – Oca – Pq do Ibirapuera – São Paulo – Brasil
– Entre Mundos – ArtBo 2010 – Bogotá – Colômbia
– Del pasado al presente : Migraciones- Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes- Santiago- Chile
– In transition: 2010 CIFO Grants & Commissions Program Exhibition- CIFO- Miami- EUA
– Constructing Views -New Museum- Nova York – EUA
– URB 2010 Festival- Galleria Huuto, Helsinki, Finlândia
– Espectador em transito- SESC Araxá- Macapá- Brasil
– 2 de Copas – Vera Cortez e Tijuana/Vermelho – Lisboa – Portugal
– Quem tem medo? – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Qué es lo Que Hace a Los Espejismos de Hoy Tan Diferentes, Tan Atractivos? – Factoria – Havana – Cuba
– Repeat all – Centro Cultural Chacao – Caracas – Venezuela
2009
– Coleção Mam-Ba/50 Anos de Arte Brasileira – Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM BA] – Salvador – Brasil
– Por Aqui – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Qué es lo Que Hace a Los Espejismos de Hoy Tan Diferentes, Tan Atractivos? – Factoría Compostela – Santiago de Compostela – Espanha
– Brazil Knows What Video Art Is – Videographe – Montreal – Canadá
– RESTRAINT, New media practices from Brazil and Peru – Oboro Gallery and the Maison de la culture Marie Uguay – Montreal – Canadá
– Brazil – Substitut- Berlin – Alemanha
– Arquitetura Da Pele – Museu Vitor Meirelles – Florianópolis – Brasil
– 11º Festival Internacional De Curtas – Palácio Das Artes – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– Indie 2009 – Mostra De Cinema Mundial – Usina – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– Espectador Em Transito – SESC Centro – Aracajú – Brasil
– Espectador Em Transito – SESC Espírito Santo – Vitória – Brasil
– Mostra Vídeo Itau Cultural – Observatórios – Palacio Das Artes – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– Mostra Vídeo Itau Cultural – Observatórios – Cine Metropolis – Vitoria – Brasil
– 5ª Bienal VentoSul: Água Grande: Os Mapas Alterados – Curitiba – Brasil
– Espectador Em Transito – SESC Centro – Maceió – Brasil
– Dial M for murder – 13º Prêmio Cultura Inglesa Festival – Centro Brasileiro Britânico – São Paulo – Brasil
– 10ª Bienal Habana: Integración y resistencia en la era global – Havana – Cuba
– Videoformes 09 / Preview – Les Saisons Numériques – Mk2 Bibliothèque – Paris – França
– Brazil Knows What Video Art Is – Video Formes – Clermont-Ferrand – França
– Repeat all – Museu da Imagem e do Som [MIS] – São Paulo – Brasil
– Espectador Em Transito – SESC Petrolina – Pernambuco – Brasil
2008
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas – Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar – Fortaleza – Brasil
– Intangible – Artecámara – ArtBo – Bogotá -Colômbia
– Container Art – Parque Villa Lobos – São Paulo – Brasil
– Espectador em Trânsito – SESC Mato Grosso – Mato Grosso – Brasil
– I/legítimo: Dentro e Fora do Circuito – Museu da Imagem e do Som [MIS] – São Paulo – Brasil
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas – FIESP – São Paulo – Brasil
– É claro que você sabe do que estou falando? – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Espectador em Trânsito – SESC Campina Grande – Paraíba – Brasil
– Provas de Contato – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Ar Livre – paisagens audiovisuais – Oficina Cultural Regional Hilda Hilst – Campinas – Brasil
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas –Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM RJ] – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Espectador em Trânsito – SESC João Pessoa – Paraíba – Brasil
– Verbo 2008 – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Loop Diverse 2008 – International Festival & Fair for Videoart – Barcelona – Espanha
– Foreign Element – Gallery 32 – Londres – Inglaterra
– Espectador em Trânsito – Galeria de Arte SESC Garanhuns – Pernambuco – Brasil
– Oidaradio – Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas – Museu Oscar Niemeyer – Curitiba – Brasil
– We used to be painters – Plan 9 – Bristol – Inglaterra
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas – Centro Cultural Palácio da Justiça – Manaus – Brasil
– Brazil Knows what Videoart is – New Experimental Works Living in Transition – Le Cube – Paris – França
– Looks Conceptual ou Como Confundi um Carl André com uma Pilha de Tijolos – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2007
– 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas –Unidade do SESI – Taguatinga (Brasília) – Brasil
– Microwave Festival – A La Chinoise – Hong Kong Film Archive – Hong Kong – Hong Kong
– Recortar e Colar – CRTL_C + CRTL_V – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Comunismo da Forma – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Passei-o-one-day show – Koh-i-noor – Copenhagen – Dinamarca
– 1º Bienal Fin del Mundo: Terra do fogo – Ushuaia – Argentina
– Uma Autobiografia Visual – Claudia Andujar – Solar do Unhão – Salvador – Brasil
2006
– This is not a Love Song – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Asociaciones debidas – Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderna [CAAM] – Ilhas Canárias
– Interconnect@entre a atenção e a imersão – Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie [ZKM] – Karlsruhe – Alemanha
– Salão Nacional de Goiás 6°prêmio Flamboyant – Goiás – Brasil
– Aktuelle Videokunst aus Brasilien – KunstWerk Berlin – Berlim – Alemanha
– Videometry – Loop/06 – Galeria Dels Àngels – Barcelona – Espanha
– Paradoxos – Rumos Itaú Cultural 2005/2006 Artes Visuais – Instituto Itaú Cultural – São Paulo; Paço Imperial – Rio de Janeiro; Casa das – Onze Janelas – Belém; Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar – Fortaleza – Brasil
– Zeitgenossische Fotokunst aus Brasilien – Neue Berliner Kunstverein [NBK] – Berlim – Alemanha
2005
– Rencontres Parallèles – Centre D ‘Art Contemporain De Basse-Normandie – França
– Au Delà du Copan, Beyond the Copan. Supernatural Urbanism – Espace Paul Ricard – Paris – França
– Weird Walls – Festival Cultura Nova – Heerlen – Holanda
– 5°Edição Prêmio Sergio Motta – Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
– 15° Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasil – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– 4° Hype – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Verbo – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Experimenta Colômbia – Festival de Artes Eletrônicas – Bogotá – Brasil
– Yano-a – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2004
– 11° Salão da Bahia – Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM BA] – Salvador – Brasil
– Filme Fashion – Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil e Museu da Imagem e do Som – São Paulo – Brasil
– Pop-Video – SENAC – São Paulo – Brasil
– Bem-Vindos – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Corpo de Baile 2 – Lord Palace Hotel – São Paulo – Brasil
– Grátis – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– A Foto Dissolvida – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Corpo de Baile 2 – Galeria Vermelho – Brasil
2003
– Modos de Usar – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Imagética – Fundação Cultural de Curitiba – Moinho – Curitiba – Brasil
– A Subversão dos Meios – Instituto Itaú Cultural – São Paulo – Brasil
– 6º Prêmio Revelação de Artes Plásticas de Americana –Museu de Arte Contemporânea [MAC] – Americana – Brasil
– In ´Vel – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– Sábado de Performances – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
2002
– Marrom – Galeria Vermelho – São Paulo – Brasil
– 13º Vídeo Brasil Mostra Itinerante Bahia – Teatro do ICBA – Salvador – Brasil
2001
– 13º Vídeo Brasil Mostra Itinerante BH – Palácio das Artes – Belo Horizonte – Brasil
– 13º Vídeo Brasil – SESC Pompéia – São Paulo – Brasil
– Experimentos Tropicais II – Pacific Film Archive – Berkeley – EUA
1999
– Trabalhos de Graduação Integrada – Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado [FAAP] – São Paulo – Brasil
– Outros Corpos/ Other Bodies – Exposição de Arte Eletrôncia – 2º Seminário Avançado de Comunicação e Semiótica –São Paulo- Brasil
– Enigmas – Galeria Brito Cimino – São Paulo – Brasil
1998
– Horizonte Refelexivo – Centro Cultural Light – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil
– Panorama da Imagem – Novíssimos – Paço das Artes – São Paulo – Brasil
– Medidas de Si – MAM-SP – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo – São Paulo – Brasil
Prizes
2014
– Rumos Itaú Cultural 2013-2014 – São Paulo – Brasil
2012
– Nam June Paik Award 2012 (Selecionados / Short listed) – Bochum – Alemanha
2010
– Cisneiros Fontanals Art Foundation [CIFO] – Miami – EUA
2009
– 8º Prêmio Sergio Motta de Arte e Tecnologia – Instituto Sergio Motta – São Paulo – Brasil
– 13º Prêmio Cultura Inglesa Festival – Centro Brasileiro Britânico – São Paulo – Brasil
– 13º Prêmio Cultura Inglesa Festival (Prêmio Destaque / Best Exhibition Award) – Centro Brasileiro Britânico – São Paulo – Brasil
2006
– 6° Prêmio Flamboyant – Salão Nacional de Goiás – Brasil
– 2° Prêmio CNI SESI Marcântonio Vilaça para Artes Plásticas – Recife – Brasil (2006-2008)
2004
– 5° Prêmio Sérgio Motta de Arte e Tecnologia – São Paulo – Brasil
– 11° Salão da Bahia [Prêmio Aquisição] – Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM BA] – Salvador – Brasil
2003
– 6º Prêmio Revelação de Artes Plásticas de Americana Prêmio Incentivo – Museu de Arte Contemporânea – Americana – Brasil
Residencies
2014
– International Artist Residency Programme, Vancouver Biennale, Vancouver, Canadá
2011
– Projeto de Residências – IN.SITU.AÇÕES – Mamam no Pátio – Recife – Brasil2008
– Artist links – Inglaterra-Brasil – British Council – Inglaterra
2007
– Unesco – Aschberg Bursaries for Artist Programme – Residency at HIAP – Helsinki – Finlândia
Public Collections
– ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien – Karlsruhe – Alemanha
– Museu de Arte Moderna [ MAM BA] – Salvador – Brasil
– Maison Européene de la Photographie (MEP) – Paris – França
– Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Goiás – Goiânia – Brasil
– Museu Nacional da República – Brasília – Brasil
– Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo – São Paulo – Brasil
Private Collections open to the Public
– Acervo Itinerante Projeto Artesesc – Departamento Nacional do Sesc
– CIFO Art Foundation Collection – Miami – EUA
– Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz – Ribeirão Preto – Brasil
– Instituto Itaú Cultural – São Paulo – Brasil
– Coleção Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. Comodato Roger Wright – São Paulo –Brasil
APRESENTAÇÃO
Em 1968, o escritor norte-americano Philip K. Dick publicou Androides sonham com ovelhas elétricas?, romance que inspirou o roteiro do filme Blade Runner (1982). A trama, em que androides são perseguidos por se passarem por humanos, antecipou complexas ambiguidades entre vidas orgânicas e sínteses artificiais cada vez mais presentes em um mundo repleto de espécies transgênicas, pesquisas sobre clonagem e poderosos algoritmos de processamento de dados. Hoje é evidente que existe muito de artificial e sintetizado no que chamamos de natural, assim como existem intrigantes analogias de vida nos materiais e sistemas fabricados pelo homem.
É justamente a região ambivalente entre o sintético do natural e o natural do sintético que esta exposição dos artistas Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima explora com uma reunião de obras produzidas pela dupla desde 2007. Circuitos eletrônicos, ondas sonoras, lâmpadas fluorescentes e outros artefatos fabricados estão entre os componentes de surpreendentes demonstrações de vida, que nos falam sobre os corpos, as cidades, as paisagens e a natureza. Quando, em Calar, o frio aparato técnico de uma câmera sensível ao calor (tecnologia fundamental para os ataques noturnos nas guerras recentes) é empregado para representar o jogo de mútua transmissão térmica entre dois corpos que se silenciam alternadamente, o que surge é uma inusitada metáfora afetiva dos relacionamentos. Por outro lado, quando, em Circuito Impresso e Circuito Condutor, diferentes cidades do mundo são traduzidas como padrões gráficos em circuitos eletrônicos que sintetizam, respectivamente, suas redes viárias e hídricas, o que se revela é o caráter artificioso e anti-natural da urbanização.
E assim, em cada obra, o visitante poderá se deixar seduzir por sensações sintetizadas pelos artistas e esquecer-se de seus dispositivos em prol da vida que evocam; ou, ao contrário, aproveitar o estranhamento dos meios empregados como oportunidade para desconfiar das ideias recebidas sobre a forma e a vida dos objetos.
OBRA
Das muitas tarefas que a arte tomou para si na história da humanidade, uma das mais persistentes tem sido a fabricação de representações de parcelas do mundo. Hoje, quando nem toda arte representa algo e nem tudo que representa algo é arte, uma obra como a de Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima oferece elaboradas emulações do real, seja com a mais avançada ou a mais simples das tecnologias. O fundamental para os artistas não é criar réplicas ou simulações idênticas ao real, mas produzir sistemas concretos que funcionem de modo equivalente aos fenômenos que lhes interessam. Por esse princípio, minúsculos autofalantes usualmente empregados em alarmes podem soar como grilos e cigarras; ou padrões de onda sonora lembrar o movimento das montanhas vistas de um carro em movimento.
A recompensa desses esforços vai além do efeito ilusório que os trabalhos podem provocar. O mais importante é que esses modelos tornam possível especular sobre o que é que torna a própria realidade perceptível. Se o duplo de um relâmpago pode ser montado com lâmpadas fluorescentes, sem disfarces ou truques, o que isso nos ensina sobre o que percebemos de um relâmpago com nosso aparato ótico? Se uma ilusão cognitiva permite que duas crianças no parque pareçam estar juntas e, logo em seguida, separadas, o que isso sugere sobre as distinções de proximidade e conexão no mundo contemporâneo?
Ao produzirem imagens do mundo que são tão explicitamente artificiais, Gisela e Leandro acabam por demonstrar a parcela construída de qualquer percepção que se tenha do real, por mais imediata que ela pareça.
MINIBIO
A parceria de Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima, paulistanos nascidos em 1976, remete a seus anos de graduação em artes plásticas na Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), concluída em 1999. Desde então, utilizam linguagens que abrangem vídeo, fotografia, objetos e gambiarras, empregando padrões, medidas, estruturas e suas variações para criar situações altamente construídas. Nelas, elementos naturais, matemáticos e artificiais emulam o comportamento orgânico, sintetizam fenômenos naturais e criam certa ambiguidade, apesar da sua aparente objetividade.
Com inúmeras participações em exposições no Brasil e no exterior, têm se consolidado como artistas que transitam entre os mais variados contextos artísticos, desde mostras com temáticas políticas contemporâneas até ambientes dedicados a determinados suportes tecnológicos. Com esse trânsito, a dupla demonstra que o escopo da arte não se restringe à discussão dos seus meios, ao mesmo tempo em que cada recurso técnico possui virtudes e possibilidades expressivas latentes que podem ser mobilizadas ou subvertidas pelo artista.
I. PARENTHESIS
In March 2000, having just completed the shooting for Éloge de l’amour – whose second half had been done in digital video -, director Jean-Luc Godard gave an interview to the periodical Cahiers du Cinéma [1]. This was a special issue of the magazine, and the idea was to investigate how recent technological, economic and social transformations affect the way cinema is made today. The director, who is normally reluctant about interviews, accepted the request upon one condition: the interviewers should bring him a VHS copy of the film “The Shining”, by Stanley Kubrick.
The dialogue with Godard is difficult from the first round. An initial attempt to make him talk about – among other ‘big issues’ in contemporary cinema – the digital image, the existence of cinema outside the cinema, etc, is followed by a merciless blow: Do you really ask yourselves these questions, or is it simply to exist, to play along, like on television? The interviewers, for their part, still seemed very excited with the idea that one of the most experimental of modern filmmakers was finally exploring the possibilities opened up by new technologies. He, who has thoroughly explored the possibilities of cinema, of analogical video, who has invented a completely original way of making films, would have plunged at last into the brave new world of digital media. And so the question is posed:
Does digital video interest you?
Of course, but I don’t see no reason why we should talk about it.
II. THE TIME-IMAGE
Making use of a theory of cinema to talk about digital video is perhaps an act of corruption, of illegitimacy. After all, video art has its own history, a ‘non-linear lineage’ that can be traced back to the 1960s, and one could even say that there is practically a consensus – among art critics – to classify it within the field of the visual arts. Which does not mean, of course, that the dialogues between video art and cinema are not recurrent and prolific, as in the renowned works of artists such as Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huygue, among others. In the field of cinema things become a bit more complicated. Part entertainment industry, part experimentation, sometimes the product ‘film’ is too slippery to fit into any kind of classification.
My intention here is to put aside, for the time being, the specificities of each medium and to look at the moving image per se and the ways in which it is apprehended. The suggestion is that what is made visible, not only in The Kiss, but also in Leandro Lima and Gisela Motta’s body of work, finds a resonance in philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s writings in Cinema 2. Departing from Henri Bergson’s ontology of images, mainly as set out in Matter and Memory, Deleuze argues that in post war cinema (the first volume, Cinema 1, is dedicated to pre-war cinema) there is an inversion of the sensory-motor scheme of classical cinema where time was subordinated to movement. Classical cinema is characterised by the movement-image, an image that is always linked to an action and therefore necessarily linked to an indirect representation of time. Modern cinema, on its turn, realises its capacity to make visible temporal relationships that can only become visible through the creation of images. It is what Deleuze calls ‘pure optical and sound situations’.
According to the author, the Second World War is a determining factor in this break, for it ‘has greatly increased the situations which we no longer know how to react to, in spaces which we no longer know how to describe. These were ‘any spaces whatever’, deserted but inhabited, disused warehouses, waste ground, cities in the course of demolition or reconstruction. And in these any-spaces-whatever a new race of characters was stirring, a kind of mutant: they saw rather than acted, they were seers.’ [2] <#_ftn2> What happens when the characters no longer know how to act and become seers themselves is the collapse of the action-image of classical cinema. But if action loses its central place, something else comes to replace it. This is the great inversion proposed by Deleuze: it is time – time in a pure state – that dominates modern cinema.
III. THE BODY AS THE DEVELOPER[3]OF TIME
One of the strategies of modern cinema: ‘…sometimes…it is necessary to make holes, to introduce voids and white spaces, to rarefy the image, by suppressing many things that have been added to make us believe that we are seeing everything. It is necessary to make a division or make emptiness in order to find the whole again.’ [4]
There is no sound. There is silence. There are no cuts or different framings. There is the modulation of the image, the unstoppable modulation of the organic substance that traverses the bodies and allows them to meet on the limit imposed by architecture.
The bodies in The Kiss are not the first bodies in Leandro Lima and Gisela Motta’s work. Here they are almost static, immersed in a ceaseless flux and seemingly unconscious. In some other works the bodies move, albeit performing flimsy and repetitive movements neither making an attempt at completing a specific task nor offering us a narrative entry into the image in movement.
‘Give me a body then: this is the formula of philosophical reversal. The body is no longer the obstacle that separates thought from itself, that which it has to overcome to reach thinking. It is on the contrary that which plunges into or must plunge into, in order to reach the unthought, that is life’. [5] <#_ftn5> According to Deleuze, this is the situation of the body in modern cinema: (the body) not as a thinking entity, but as that which provokes us – through its postures and attitudes – to think about what does not belong to the domain of the intellect. Wait and tiredness, in Antonioni’s case; or the disconnected space that becomes reconnected through the attitudes of the bodies, in Cassavetes.
Hence what kind of postures do Lima and Motta’s bodies express? It seems to me that a recurrent theme in many works is the inability to act which, in some respects, actualises the deleuzian scheme of modern cinema. Here the loop, used in many of their pieces, is not merely a technical resource – it is a key element in the construction of the bodies’ attitudes. For those bodies not only don’t know how to act – or when they do their action is minimal – but also seem to be trapped within an insurmountable time and space.
Just like in Deleuze ‘the image itself is the system of relations between its elements, that is, a set of temporal relations whose variable presents only fluxes’, insome cases the body itself is the system of relations between its elements whose variable presents only temporal fluxes. Those are movements inherent to the body and not the intellect: the pulse of breathing or of the circulation of fluids. It is as if the often imperceptible modulation, the microscopic and incessant movement of life was finally made visible – a developer of time.
IV. ARTIFICE AND NATURE
I would like to suggest, however, that the body’s inability to act in the work of Lima and Motta is not restricted to the ability of making visible certain temporal relations, as in Deleuze’s thesis. There is another recurring element whose importance cannot be overlooked. In order to do so, it is necessary to return to the question of digital image, because what is made visible in this case is only possible through the digital manipulation of the image. Godard’s grumpiness is understandable: it is not the medium that determines an artist’s creative capacity. But here the image does not serve as a mere demonstration of technological innovation: it is central in the creation of the bodies’ attitudes.
In The Kiss, temporality is expressed by the molecular movement of nature, but that of an artificially constructed nature. Albeit captured by the camera the body is the only truly natural element. The nature that involves it, however, results from a manipulated image and although this work is more optimistic than the previous ones, the bodies never touch each other and consequently the kiss never happens. There is once more the idea of entrapment which might be the result of the inability to equate the natural and the artificial in a constructed environment where the body no longer knows how to act.
This tension and anxiety emerge from these bodies’ insistence in being incorporated in a constructed environment, before which they do not know how to, or cannot act; or are searching for new postures in the contemporary information society.
If, according to Deleuze ‘cinema does not give us the presence of the body and cannot give us it, this is perhaps also because it sets itself a different objective; it spreads an ‘experimental night’ or a white space over us; it works with ‘dancing seeds’ and a ‘luminous dust’; it affects the visible with a fundamental disturbance, and the world with a suspension, which contradicts all natural perception. What it produces in this way is the genesis of an ‘unknown body’ which we have in the back of our heads, like the unthought in thought, the birth of the visible which is hidden from view.’[6] Likewise, Lima and Motta’s work shows us an ‘unknown body’ whose genesis is tied to digital image, making visible a process which today undergoes increasing acceleration. At this point we are no longer in modern cinema, but somewhere else where a new kind of image is being formed.