Circuladô
interactive installation + single channel video
2007 - 2011
The Circuladô project gathers together archival images of characters that live limit-situations: Thelonius Monk (Monk whirls around himself, on stage, as if he were having a psychotic seizure); Oedipus (in the film by Pasolini, King Oedipus, each time Oedipus arrives at the crossroads, he covers his eyes with his hands, gyrates and continues his journey in the direction in which he stopped spinning, as a way of not choosing the destiny foreseen by the oracle); Corisco (in the film by Glauber Rocha, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, Corisco, before dropping dead, opens his arms and spins); Sufis or Dervishes (Dervish whirling is one of the most ancient and vigorous methods of spinning and trance); and Pomba Gira (whenever Pomba Gira goes into a trance, she begins spinning).
Each zoetrope contains limit-situations and images (madness, trance, death, destiny) of characters that are at the same time singular and universal. Each spectator can interact with the zoetropes, controlling the rhythm of the image and sound of each. The installation attempts to make the spectator experience a hybrid image, between pre- and post-cinema.
As in most of my projects, the Circuladô (“circulator”) project, once conceptualized, is actualized in different image devices:
1) a video installation in which we see five screens with their corresponding characters and sounds;
2) an installation with sonorous zoetropes;
3) an interactive installation, whereby the spectator, by way of a crank, can determine the spin velocity of the images projected within it. What interested me from the very beginning was to create a circulator in which we see the characters whirling around as a result of the way the spectators turn the device’s crank. The images and sounds would create psychedelic effects on the walls of the room, such that the outside of the devices would be complemented by a hypnotic atmosphere. Summing up, we are talking about blending, in a single work, device and concept, mental loops and physical loops, images of spinning movement and circular devices, and moving images and the spectator’s movement – that is, making this work a bridge that connects pre-cinematographic devices to post-cinematographic devices, having as its content and form the issue of spinning and of the body of the image.
4) a single-channel video piece:
CREDITS:
(for the exhibition in Galeria Fayga Ostrower, Brasilia - 2012)
Director and Production Manager: André Parente
Assistant Director: Luisa Fosco
Technical Director and Producer: Júlio Parente
Architect: Pedro Varela
Local Producer: Laila Melchior
Graphic Design: Estúdio Marcia Cabral
Public Relations : Anna Bernardes
