O Canto do Bode

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Leonor Antunes, Juan Araujo, Tonico Lemos Auad, Anderson Borba, Pedro Victor Brandão, Panmela Castro, Alexandre da Cunha, Caetano de Almeida, Edu de Barros, Arnaldo de Melo, Marcius Galan, Fernanda Gomes, João Maria Gusmão, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, Daniel Fagus Kairoz, Lucia Laguna, Kim Lim, Laura Lima, João Loureiro, Manata Laudares, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cildo Meireles, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Dalton Paula, Jorge Queiroz, Mauro Restiffe, Marina Rheingantz, Marina Saleme, Julião Sarmento, Rebecca Sharp, Tadáskía (formerly max wíllà morais), Janaina Tschäpe, Erika Verzutti, Luiz Zerbini and Michel Zózimo.

Architecture design by João Maria Gusmão

Three Brazilian galleries from different generations join global initiatives in building new working models in an unprecedented context for the art circuit. 32 artists represented by the galleries, in addition to 4 guest artists, will occupy a former cinema within the historic Casa da Cultura, at the Herdade da Comporta Foundation, which becomes a pop-up gallery in the European summer.

The exhibition "The Song of the Goat" takes place in two acts and is structured like a play, with architecture design by artist João Maria Gusmão, and a narrative that unfolds simultaneously in the audience, stage and backstage. The title refers to the Greek term tragoedia [tragos (“goat”) and oide (“song”)] and celebrates the Brazilian tradition of sacralizing the profane and profaning the sacred, deconstructing the dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollonian.

In the proscenium, facing the audience, the suspended drumsticks in Alexandre da Cunha’s Slit IX (2019) define the first act’s cadence, on the beat of the erotic. Ernesto Neto’s new work Umbigo Ventre Fruto Arte [Belly Button Womb Fruit Art] (2021) also evokes rhythm and fertility. Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe incorporates colour and Yanomami oral tradition from El Alto Orinoco, Venezuela, its cosmogony and ancestry. Edu Barros’ painting calls upon the history of frescos and its relationship with spiritual ascension, whilst Jorge Queiroz’s post-symbolic world is revealed in his enigmatic painting.

At centre-stage, the works of Daniel Fagus Kairoz and Cildo Meireles call into question infamous moments in Brazilian political history. In The Weeping White Man and Word (both from 2020), invited artist Anderson Borba juxtaposes the practice of modernist sculptors and self-taught artists as a way of dealing with current issues. Leonor Antunes’ suspended sculptures use materials such as wicker and brass to create a visual choreography. In turn, Rivane Neuenschwander’s painting After the Storm (2021) suggests new topologies designed on paper soaked in tropical rain, followed by the empirical nature of Lucia Laguna’s luxurious painting. The reformulation of meanings from the material world permeates the entire exhibition and is also reflected in the works of João Loureiro, Manata Laudares and Pedro Victor Brandão.

Exploring the relationship between interior and exterior, both as places of imagination and representation, the second act opens the stage with Kim Lim’s historic works Narcissus (1959) and Caryatid (1961), showcasing her interest in ancient civilization whilst activating the tension between ordered experience and the dynamic rhythm of organic forms. Rebecca Sharp’s pictorial and meditative practice reveals unusual and surreal scenes, and Marcius Galan’s Bandeirinha [Bunting] (2013) questions the metaphorical capacity of space and our relationship with it.

Abstract gesture confers materiality onto psychological tension in the paintings of Arnaldo de Melo and Janaina Tschopp, whilst Marujo [Sailor] (2020) by Marina Rheingantz suggests the reconstruction of a memory. Figurative representation emerges in the work of Panmela Castro, where she revisits the tradition of portrait by painting her contemporaries in the art and activism fields, as well as in the portrait by Dalton Paula who reinterprets black diaspora historic and cultural identities. The body appears as classical sculpture in Robert Mapplethorpe’s ballet photographs and odd three-dimensional shapes in João Maria Gusmão’s sculpture of a tattooed torso. In the works of Mauro Restiffe and Juan Araujo, palimpsests of architecture and art are suspended in the history of image, whilst vestiges of studio practice and remnants of an extemporaneous world come together in the works of Erika Verzutti and Fernanda Gomes.

In the staging of two exhibition acts, dialogues and synergies are established between artists from different generations who have followed different formal paths. "The Song of the Goat" unfolds its main plot – the possibility of bringing together voices that propose new joint narratives.

Fundação Herdade da Comporta: the mission of Fundação da Herdade da Comporta is to improve the lives of people who live in Herdade da Comporta, a village on the coast of Alentejo next to Alcácer do Sal, a 1.5-hour drive from Lisbon. The foundation has renovated the historic building of Casa da Cultura and, since 2016, has been developing a project called Live Heritage, a public initiative that aims to foster cultural and tourist activities that seek to integrate and benefit the local community.

Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel: Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is a standard for the strength and quality of Brazilian contemporary art within the international scene. This August marks its 20th anniversary. The gallery represents 40 artists through a dynamic and diverse program, with an average of 15 exhibitions a year, book launches, workshops for kids, screenings, and talks with experts in the field. It takes part in the most important art fairs worldwide and regularly supports institutional publications and exhibitions. Founded in 2001 by Márcia Fortes and Alessandra D’Aloia as Galeria Fortes Vilaça, it had its name changed in 2016 when Alexandre Gabriel, who had until then had served as Artistic Director, became a partner. There are currently two exhibition venues with distinct profiles: Galpão in São Paulo and Carpintaria in Rio de Janeiro.

Galeria Luisa Strina: in 2021 Galeria Luisa Strina completes 47 years of activity. Luisa Strina started as a marchand in 1970 and opened her gallery in 1974. During the 1970s, Strina introduced into the market diverse exponents of what later would be called Geração 70, such as Cildo Meireles, Tunga, Waltercio Caldas and Antonio Dias. Her gallery was the first Latin-American one invited to participate in the Basel Art Fair, in 1992. During the 1990s she started working with Brazilian artists that would afterwards develop an international career, such as Alexandre da Cunha, Fernanda Gomes, Marcius Galan and Marepe. In the 2000s, the gallery moved its attention to young Latin American artists like Mateo Lopez, Gabriel Sierra, Jorge Macchi, Pedro Reyes and Carlos Garaicoa, as well as to a new generation of Brazilians like Renata Lucas, Laura Lima, Jarbas Lopes and the Portuguese Leonor Antunes. In the last decade, Galeria Luisa Strina has crowned its trajectory, bringing Anna Maria Maiolino, Lygia Pape, Alfredo Jaar and Robert Rauschenberg to the gallery.

Sé Galeria: in 2011 artist and curator Maria Montero founded Phosphorus. Located in a historical context, at the very first street of the city of São Paulo, it was a space dedicated to artistic experimentation and residencies. In 2014, after a continuous program of exhibitions and over twenty residencies, Montero founded Sé gallery in the same building. After 6 years in São Paulo downtown, Sé changed its headquarters to house 2 of Flávio de Carvalho’s modernist village in the Jardins neighborhood. Sé represents 19 Brazilian artists, with a solid institutional or academic path, most of them began their dialogue with the art market through the gallery. Sé came to life in a moment of revision of the contemporary art modus operandi. Sé works in collaboration and partnership with the represented artists, privileging the critical accompaniment and the realization of institutional projects. The gallery seeks to form new audiences for artists and works that express a conceptual and research-based vision of contemporary art