The Small Gesture of Architectural Design: Multidisciplinary Digital Space
With this digital exhibition, the studio sought to reuse and recontextualize the universe of Congolândia, previously presented by the artist Thó Simões, transporting it to the digital environment through a deep dialogue with the architectural process.
The subtle gesture of architectural design, digital space, is nourished by the artist's work, establishing a starting point inspired by the concept of the Universe in Disenchantment. This gesture is the result of several conversations between the Arts, based on mutual trust between creators and the absence of prejudice.
The procedural dialogue was based on the oval shape, used as a questioning instrument, whether the box emerges from the egg or the box emerges from the egg?
If architecture transcends its physicality and its function as a mere shelter, shouldn't its interior form also occupy an equivalent space within this language? In this sense, written language assumes the silent intensity of architecture, integrating itself fully into the creative process.
"(...) The fact that the work was compared to its architectural container meant that it was taken in its most literal sense. Both the architectural container and the contained work must be seen as something non-illusionistic, neutral and objectively factual; that is, as material. Literally, the gallery functioned as part of the art (...)"
— Dan Graham
"Sun Ra: Space is your place"
The 8th Edition of the project entitled Cabana de Arte, by the BANGA group, brought as guests the Angolan artist Thó Simões and the atelier del medio.
Through the concept that gives its name to this exhibition, RECONGOLÂNDIA aims to recycle and reframe Thó Simões' work Congolândia, through a dialogue that proposes to refocus the work on its dimension as a mode of expression, revelation, and criticism, within the creation of an architectural-exhibition project, with the aim of taking the visitor on a journey where, free from prejudice and with confidence in the unknown, they will learn to question their own individuality, thus understanding the vibrant message that the inhabitants of this ancient kingdom of Congolândia bring us.
Artist
THÓ SIMÕES was born in Malanje, Angola. He makes urban art, performances, installations, cinema and photography. He studied art at the National Institute of Arts and Culture (INFAC) in Luanda, Angola. In 2001, he exhibited for the first time the collective “Os Nacionalistas” and has continued to this day. A researcher, curious by nature. The magnetism of Angola and Africa, the influence of African culture on the modern world is a manifesto in his work. His works, also the result of research into ancestral cultural heritages and modern urban languages, suggest suggestive sociocultural dialogues between the past, present and future. African representation and its global influence.