Paul Mpagi Sepuya

In Portuguese – unlike the words "chasquido" in Spanish and "snap" in English - the word "estalo" has a meaning that goes beyond a direct relationship with that gesture. The term designates many situations in which a sudden movement changes the ongoing state of different materials and, possibly, generates sounds of different vibrations. The movement of tectonic plates resulting in an earthquake, the sensation of stepping on the fallen branch of a tree, and the clinking of a glass full of ice when we pour a liquid inside it: all these actions generate "estalos". Some have a macro proportion, capable of altering and even destroying an entire city; others are in the field of microhistory and bodily pleasures that sometimes go unnoticed. In Portuguese, the word will also have a layer of reading that refers to violence: an "estalo" can be a slap in the face, and the same word refers to violated objects – a shattered glass – or a noise associated with violence, like the crack of a whip.

At the 14th Mercosul Biennial, this title – "Estalo" – is an invitation to inhabit the movement and the transformation from one state to another. A living being acts on the other through dance, sonic matters, drawing, painting, video, or installation; we want to gather artists and works of art interested in "estalos" related to human beings and more than humans. If some of the research at the biennale is explosive due to its agitated, abrupt and iconophilic social context, other artists create visualities that, even though they seem quieter, just because they exist, can be seen as an "estalo". Let's not forget there are the grandiloquent crackles and the almost imperceptible ones – from the germination of a seed to the vibration of trap music beats; this project deals with metamorphosis.

At Espaço Força e Luz

"At Espaço Força e Luz, we bring together artists who work with color and ecstasy, from the showcase with a video work, through the ground and first floors with installations that take over the space chromatically, until we finally reach a series of photographs on the third floor that deal with sweat and mystery. Being alive is an experience of intensity.
When our pupils dilate, there is an indication of some alteration in our organisms. Whether due to light, an emotional factor, or even a chemical one, our senses become heightened, and we must pay attention to each of our steps. In this Estalo of the Bienal, also a stage for part of our Public Programs, we invite the public to dive into the excesses and praises of pleasure catalyzed by the artists gathered here."

Usina do Gasômetro

Just like the artistic practices at Usina do Gasômetro, which work by putting the supposed rigidity of disciplines into tension, the works that compose this Estalo articulate themselves through friction, with each work and artistic research pointing in a different direction. Zooming in on the action of rubbing two stones, we notice that the spark is a third space of action. Although minimal, it is the procedural place where energy creation occurs. The goal is for the exhibition space to be this third place, resulting from the friction between the reflections raised by the works.

The contact spaces that provoke the spark and, therefore, the exhibition, are configured as follows: sound, which some works address as a reflection of collective human and non-human experiences while others approach it from the power to contest policies around pleasure and its intended commodification; contemporary material and visual culture as well as the social relationships that configured them as consumption fetishes; and everyday practices, in their agency to enable collective mobilizations.

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Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Estalo
14th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil

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