The event is part of Zona &.

Moving Landscapes

After ten years of working with the black kilometer-long rope, which took QUARTO to unexpected places and successes, they continue their uncompromising artistic exploration of bodies in relation to materials. This year QUARTO celebrates their 20th anniversary. Their new work Moving Landscapes is a part of the CUBE series and is the fourth series that they have developed in the past two decades.

Moving Landscapes is a performative installation, site-specific work and video series where their values and attitudes toward the territory, locality, ecology of habitation and porosity between private and public, are explored in an intricate choreography of bodies and a metal cube.

This physical structure is purposefully simple. It’s an empty volume, a three-dimensional cube made of metal pipes measuring 3mx3m. Observed on its own, in its basic constructivist simplicity, this support structure exists as a representation of the porous boundaries between internal and external, private and public. It is an ambiguous skeleton that maintains the void, inside and around of which we can dwell. QUARTO´s interest in the cube as a performative tool unfolds along two complementary lines of research that tackle its inherent paradox: concrete materiality of its skeletal construction and immaterial voidness, the emptiness of it which is only suggesting the porous reality of an internal/external space. The concrete construction of the cube is of interest to us both in terms of the work (construction as a verb) and physical presence (construction as a noun).

The materiality of the cube which is in the ongoing process of dis-assembling through the activity of the bodies that are engaging with it generates shared choreographies of behavior and co-laboration that affect and shape the spacetime of the performance. By treating the cube as an ongoing work – of making it, transporting it, and inhabiting it – QUARTO are continuing the performative procedure that they developed previously in relation to the rope.

Choreography, concept & performance: Anna Mesquita & Leandro Zappala

Artistic advisor: Igor Dobričić

Light design & technical coordinator: Tobias Hallgren (Lumination of Sweden)

Sound advisor: Tim Palmer

Cinematography: Claudio von Planta, Gregori Bastos, Mary Isaac, Osama Elgendy, Anton Abrahamsson & Maria Berg (Septemberfilm)

Edit & postproduction: Leandro Zappala, Henrik Norberg (Septemberfilm) & Gregori Bastos

Co-production: Weld, Dansens Hus Stockholm & Art Stations Foundation / Susch Museum (Switzerland)

Collaborations: MDT (Sweden) & Breaking Walls Festival Cairo (Egypt).

Upcoming presentations: Corneliu Mikloși Museum (Romania)  Safiental Land Art Biennale (Switzerland), GAM Cultural Center (Chile), Panorama International Dance Festival (Brazil), The National Institute of Performing Arts – INAE (Uruguay), Breaking Walls Festival Cairo (Egypt) and Campo (Brazil)

Supported by the Swedish Arts Council

QUARTO

Based in Stockholm, with roots in Brazil, the artist duo QUARTO (Leandro Zappala & Anna Mesquita) collaborate with other artists, researchers, academics and institutions devoted to research and development in the art field. This permanent dialogue in-between two distinct countries forces QUARTO to deal with different working conditions, politics, economies, cultures, infrastructure etc. placing them in constant challenges and impermanence in a transient and nomadic lifestyle. They develop long-term research within interdisciplinary art, deeply rooted in the interaction between theory and practice. Engaged primarily with philosophical questions regarding power relations between body & object, exploring the limits of the body, they seek to generate thought and subjectivity through radical, visual and physical experiences. Confronted with the complexities of the world today they are working globally, searching for new ways to make the necessary changes to construct a more sustainable future through artistic interventions.

Their work has been shown internationally at museums, venues, festivals and galleries throughout the world, here are some of the places; Netherlands (Frascati Theater), Russia (Solyanka State Gallery), Sweden (Moderna Museet, MDT, Dansens Hus, Norrlandsoperan, Inkonst, Medelhavsmuseet, Weld, among others), Germany (Ludwig Forum Museum of Modern Art, Uferstudios, Tanzhaus nrw, IFA Gallery Berlin), Lebanon (Sursock Museum of Modern Art), Brazil (Panorama International Dance Festival – Rio), Denmark (Dansehallerne, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art), Portugal (Serralves Museum of Modern Art), Austria (DONAU Festival), UK (Fierce Festival & Fest en Fest Festival), Serbia (BITEF / Kondenz Festival), Uruguay (FIDCU – International Dance Festival of Uruguay and NIDO-Campo Abierto), Estonia (Notafe Festival), Chile (NAVE – OTROSUR), Poland (Stary Browar Nowy Taniec / Malta Festival), USA/New York (In the works – La MaMa), Egypt (Breaking Walls Festival), Switzerland (Muzeum Susch).

QUARTO was awarded with the Birgit-Cullberg stipendium 2018.