“Embrionar”
by Joy Food Experiences
(Alice Artur e Joana Trindade Bento)

In autumn, after the great abundance of the earth, the rotten fruits that fall to the ground join the foreign leaves and the rest of the earth’s humus. The heat from the fermentation of all these deaths makes up fertile soil for the gestation of new life and the incubation of seeds. All beginnings need fertile conditions – and Rua das Gaivotas 6 are no exception. How many ballasts of ancient interventions permeate a space for it to have enough soul and fertile death to generate? How many places must we inhabit and dismiss until this death/life tension sprouts into something?

There are two rooms. In the first we exorcise, with seasonal smelling plants, in a stepped incense, all that which we desire to purge. In the second room, after going through the purification of the first, earthy scabs surround tubers. In their womb of heat they alter their composition and make them assimilable to us, human bodies thousands of years old. The crust is broken off, as food cooked under fire was unearthed in the first human gestures of cooking. It is in the traces of this millennial movement that we want to give birth to new mirages.

They studied Fine Arts in Caldas da Rainha and use mainly food and visual arts to think and create – in eclectic paths guided by the continuous desire to connect people and ideas. They create and produce for JOY food experiences – which works on multidisciplinary projects in various areas, such as food literacy or consulting for gastronomic experiences. In an ongoing research on social movements, the future of food, food design, participatory methodologies, food and educational systems, agriculture, nutrition, producers and artisans, food anthropology and the emotional dimension of food have proven to be their major focus of interest to think current exploratory paths.

A lake by the mõõn

In a manifesto against fatalistic and tech optimistic narratives, Duarte Eduardo (b. 1997, Caldas da Rainha) creates new sound habitats to light flames of change in the audience. In his pieces, he uses raw and ultra processed field recordings that conspire with each other to reflect on ecological themes.

Since 2020 the artist and activist from Caldas da Rainha has participated in residencies in Budapest at Spatial Sound Institute and in Odemira with 4DSOUND. He released the album “Life in Warp” with the solo project “A lake by the mõõn” where all the sounds present were created from sounds of endangered animals. He was bass player and producer for the debut album “bbb hairdryer”. He composed the soundtrack for the short film “There, where I thought I would be forever”, and soundtracked several performances. He was facilitator of the artivism workshop at Permalab – FCUL with the collective XR Lisboa.

“Dell’historia Naturale”
by Léna Lewis-King

‘Dell’historia Naturale’ (da história natural) is Léna Lewis-King’s first solo exhibition in Lisbon. The exhibition will also be accompanied by live musical performances and other events programmed by Joana Horta throughout the month. The show is composed of three projects: ‘Figure 1’, ‘The Copper Kings’ and ‘The Milk Pavilion’. Inspired by Ferrante Imperato’s 1599 woodcut of ‘Dell’Historia Naturale’, the exhibition represents the culmination of Lewis-King’s research from her residency at CASTRO Projects in Rome, where she began to investigate the proto-scientific spirit behind the development of ‘Curiosity Cabinet’ (personal collections that combined colonial, extractive, scientific, curatorial and educational practices). Lewis-King’s work revisits and deconstructs historical material from a feminist perspective, and by further considering the presentation of her research within the exhibition space, her work forms (audio-visual?) layers of critical reflection on our cultural relationships to science, medicine, labor, production, aesthetics, ontology, and the sensorial body.

Léna Lewis-King is a multimedia artist based between Lisbon and Rome. Framing her perspective from a feminist viewpoint, she explores filmmaking as an expanded medium that witnesses both the everyday magical transformations emerging between nature, technology, psychic and spiritual spaces – as well as the impact techno-capitalist acceleration has upon lived experiences. Léna’s work has been exhibited at Lisbon Art Weekend, Lisbon, La Galleria Nazionale, Roma, Journeys Festival International, Leicester, The Wrong Biennale, The Armoury Show, New York, Playback Tour (Across UK Venues), The ICA, London, SPACE Studios, London, Fitzrovia Gallery, London. She has shown in London Short Film Festival, FUSO Video Art at MAAT Museu, Lumiar Cité, The Roundhouse, BFI, Chisenhale Gallery, and Google Arts and Culture. She has been awarded the CASTRO Emergent fellowship, Roundhouse film fund, Random Acts film fund.

Cire + João Valinho

Cire Ndiaye (violin and/or voice/speech) and João Valinho (drums) present a musical proposal that enters into dialogue with the exhibition in a sound exploration around the body and the machine. For the first time we can hear this duo in more of a raw setting, inviting the audience to an intimate concert.

Cire Ndiaye (1999-) is a classically trained violinist, actress, performer, creator, singer and composer. Star of As Docinhas. She played early on in orchestras like Aproarte, JOP, OCP and JONDE where she played in Germany (Konzerthaus in Berlin and Kassel), in Romania (Romanium Atheneum in Bucarest and Sinaia), in Spain (RiojaForum in Logroño) among others. In Portugal she has toured great theaters such as Casa da Música, CCB, Rivoli, Queima de Coimbra, Teatro D.Maria II and Culturgest, among others, where she has made herself known to the world of theater with plays such as ”Carta” by Mónica Calle (presented at Teatro D.Maria II in Lisbon, Spain and Belgium), ”Another Rose” by Sofia Santos Silva (play that won Amélia Rey Colaço in the year 2021/22), and with Sónia Baptista in the play Wow. Apart from her participation in ancient music in courses with Mário Braña (Baroque violinist) and Pedro Silva, improvised counterpoint courses with Isaac Alonso de Molina (professor at The Hague Conservatory), or chamber music masterclasses with Olga Prats and Alejandro Oliva, she also participated in a free improvisation masterclass with Brandon Lopez (New York bassist). She is currently taking a training course for “Funeral Service Technicians.”

João Valinho is a Portuguese musician and visual artist from the suburbs of Sintra. In 2017, after completing his studies in Fine Arts, he starts a path in music, seeking to conceive and perform it in its contemporary and experimental practices, with activity in the flashy Lisbon improvised music scene, from free jazz to near-silence music, as well as in interdisciplinary approaches with dance and theater. Most recently active with the following projects: MOVE, Fashion Eternal, Rodrigo Amado Refraction Quartet, Rodrigo Brandão Other Space, Spectrum Awareness, No Nation Trio and Anthropic Neglect and Voltaic Trio.

Coletivo BRUMA

A Few Winter Certainties

for example:
knowing that one has to get to places at night, knowing that one has to leave places at night

for example:
knowing that one has to look closely at things, very very very close, so very close that the word “close” no longer exists

for example:
knowing that you have to turn off the light, you have to turn off the light always, bb, too much energy, too much, you have to learn to see in the darkness, you have to be the darkness itself, bb, you and I, yes, both of us, both of us will be the darkness and not the light, fuck the light! One has to put out the light, you and I will be a dark light, a new light, a light that doesn’t illuminate, a light that talks and talks, a dark light where you find women who talk about holes, their holes, our holes

for example:
knowing that you can’t burn an already burned island

for example:
knowing that this year everyone had a little fire in their head, yes, you too, bb, you had it too, bb, a little fire, no problem, things burn and go up in smoke, heads burn, minds burn, no problem, so will yours, so will mine, others will appear, heads will appear, bb, better ones, always better ones, always better ones, many more, more heads, greener, wetter, leafier and more alive

for example:
knowing that you won’t need keys to get home and to enter home, the doors will open at your pace, the doors will open at your pace, everyone will open the doors for you to enter and to leave, the sky is yours, you won’t need doors ever again, you won’t need any keys, you will be able to go wherever you want, to the bottom, wherever you need, everything will be yours, the space will be yours, bb, we will all be yours

Andrei Bessa, Márcia Lança and Julián Pacomio (BRUMA collective from the PISCINA space)

BRUMA is a collective of artists, coming from different backgrounds living in Lisbon, with a work focused on the performing arts. We are creators, performers, designers and curators in the area of live arts. We have, in one way or another, a close relationship with Espaço da Penha, which we have inhabited for a few years and where we have made presentations of our work, attended those of other artists, participated in training programs as students and trainers, made creative residencies and worked in projects that have been developed in these rooms with different choreographers. PISCINA is the working space of the BRUMA collective, which gives continuity to the projects we have already carried out among ourselves, but also to those we have developed individually, between performances, performances or training/orientation/mediation contexts. BRUMA, of PISCINA, is currently formed by: Adaline Anobile, Andrei Bessa, Bruno Brandolino, Carolina Campos, Bibi Dória, Márcia Lança, Julián Pacomio, Daniel Pizamiglio, Letícia Skrycky and Romain Beltrão Teule – artists from Brazil, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland and Uruguay.

Xavier Paes (Favela Discos)

All my joints seemed to cease their motion. No breathing. Eyes shut, I could see the warm glow from the fireplace. The fire snapped and flashed into a thousand pieces. The flames were licking the logs. The logs were smoldering. Smoke was spiraling upwards. My lungs were filling with smoke. I could feel the heat, I could smell the smoke, I could hear the wind. It was a windless wind. No wind at all. I could hear the sound of the doors opening. The door slamming. I could hear the breathings. They were speaking but the sound was not getting in through my ears. My breath was leaving my mouth and I was choking on it. Apneia. The room was moving. I was breathing. My lungs were breathing. My fingers were wet. They were wet in the winter, they were wet in the summer. My toes were cold. My legs were cold. My hands were cold. I felt a little heat on my back. I felt cold everywhere. The warmth was getting into my heart. I could breathe. I was breathing but my throat was still not open.

Xavier Paes is a transdiciplinary artist, operating in the boundaries between sound, performance and the visual arts. Exploring his surroundings through ideas such as resonant bodies, repetition, dissonance, ambient and sympathetic frequencies, he’s interested in the limits between questions like echo and ecology, feedback, activism, gleaning, acoustic and imagetic phenomena in relation with urbanistic and social questions. Having passed through institutions, galleries, festivals, kiosks, raves and after-parties, highlights in Portugal spaces such as Serralves Foundation, Porto Municipal Gallery, Oliva Art Centre, Ponto d’Orvalho, and outdoors, Villa Arson (Nice), Stichting Centrum (The Hague), OCCII (Amsterdam), L’International (Paris), STUK (Leuven) and Overtoon (Brussels). 

David Ole (Favela Discos)

At the dawn of a new millennium, we live in a society, where science and technology have reached levels undreamt of 100 years ago. However, despite the gigantic progress in the field of knowledge, we are still surrounded by strange phenomena and unusual events for which, in most cases, no satisfactory explanation can be found. In the world of so-called unusual facts, there is a set of phenomena caused by faculties we all have, but that some of us have quite developed. In this group are phenomena of telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, ectoplasm, premonition and others. Possessing a vast musical culture in this area, David Ole from an early age cultivated an unmistakable style, both in the effects he performs – some of his own creation – and in the peculiar way he presents them.

David Machado is a portuguese musician and artificer. He was initiated in the mysteries of music in 1997 and has been sharing his craft on stage since 2009, transfiguring matter, energy and intelligence in compositions and live performances with saxophone, percussion, custom computer softwares, mixing desk and an array of hyperinstruments.
He is a founding member of the collective Favela Discos and the bands Bezbog, Judas Triste, MotoRotos, Milteto and José Pinhal Post Mortem Experience, and collaborated with Cantigas do Poço and Oficina Arara.

‘Último Dia de Leão’ by N▲N▼

7 scenes divided by the time-space of a sundial. Leo, the sign ruled by the star called sun. Me, ruled by the sign called Leo. What is the fate of a star? You can look it up: A black hole. Darkness.
Each scene is a random episode of my life. In all these episodes, I lived the experience of the first time. What was the first time I discovered that I was black? What was the first time I had to fight for my body? For there to be a first, there must have been a last, a previous. My mother was born on the last day under the sign of Leo, August 22. By remembering myself, I bring my mother close.
Why do I want my mother close?
Why did I immigrate?
Why did I transit?
Why did I separate?
Because I broke cycles.
Break: The scenes are cut off from each other by sound and light, for they can only meet in darkness, like matter; or in the past, like the stars. At the end of the clock, the party.

N△N▽ is a corporal and musical performer, poet, teacher, pernambucanian and dangerous. Her professional trajectory of more than 15 years goes from the opera house to the bus, from the concert hall to the dance floor. Specialized in improvisation, as a multi-instrumentalist she uses the inspirations of jazz and the popular rhythms of Pernambuco culture to create an immersive and surprising narrative. Whether on violin, voice, harmonies, or beats, he processes his internal noises and echoes, which end up in piles of bodies in catharsis. Her DJsets are like sound narratives, famous for stirring the public’s most hidden energies, no wonder she is known as The Queen of Darkness. Recently, she acted as orchestra leader (spalla) at Rock In Rio Lisboa 2022, is part of the artistic cast of Palácio do Grilo, and produces the Voraz party. 

VORAZ showcase

VORAZ came from the desire to change, to build a platform that would welcome queer and latin bodies within the Lisbon scene, that at the time of its conception was missing such places. As time went by and Yuri Rios got closer to the local scene and important artists such as Phoebe and Violet, who even opened a space in Quantum Radio for a monthly show, the first radio show was born in February 2020, where several queer artists from the Brazilian scene performed. In 2022, with a career more consolidated in Lisbon and strong ties made, carnival arrived, and with it came the opportunity to organize the first VORAZ party, also as a commemoration of the birthday of illustrious “piranhas” at the dear club DAMAS, which hosted the last three editions of the party that proudly already had in its lineup Gadutra; Pejtota (SP); Zaya Energias; Yunne; Cigarra and N△N▽(resident and partner of this project).

Bee Barros — VJ

Bee is an artists which sees themselves as people, and a designer by training from UFPE – Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Recife, Brazil), with a one-year exchange program at Parsons – The New School for Design (New York, USA). Mastering the processes from conception to realization, their professional experience is multidisciplinary. With projects in visual arts, design, digital fabrication, sculptures, lighting fixtures and stage objects, they have collaborated with the staging of Broadway shows such as Hamilton and Little Mermaid, and films such as Ninja Turtles (2016). They later joined Fab Lab Recife as Design Officer. After moving to Portugal, they’ve returned to the performing arts, and in October 2022 they joined the team at Rua das Gaivotas 6 for an internship in technical coordination.