Camden Arts Centre opens exhibition of works by João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Wednesday, September 3, 2025


Camden Arts Centre opens exhibition of works by João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva
João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, Heat Ray, 2010. 16mm film, colour, no sound.



LONDON.- Celebrated Portuguese artists João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva present a magical, immersive film installation at Camden Arts Centre – their first major show in London. The kaleidoscopic world created by 27 16mm films and two camera obscura installations, takes viewers on an imaginative journey into science, philosophy and religion. Each film examines a particular subject-a treatise on material, animal or human behavior that probes at the nature of truth and perception. João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva: Papagaio runs from 30 January until 29 March 2015 and entry is free.

Gusmão + Paiva’s work draws attention to the paradoxes in the appearance of reality. Most of their films are shot with a high-speed camera then projected in slow motion, revealing ordinarily imperceptible detail with ghostly effect. There are few contextual cues that would enable the enigmatic scenarios to be located in a specific time or place. Starting from journeys, stories, anecdotes or cinematic allegories, the veracity of each scenario is ambiguous.

The exhibition is titled Papagaio [Portuguese for Parrot] and the first work encountered, Glossolalia (“Good Morning”), 2014,is a portrait of a magnificent Macaw in flight, beckoning visitors into the mosaic of visual delights inside the galleries. The first of the films, Falling trees, 2014, plays repetitively, acting as a consistent reference point to the other films which play in sequence. It shows the dissection of a pump wood tree from which wooden canoes are traditionally made.

The whirring mechanics of the projectors create a soundscape that draws attention to the absence of sound in the films themselves. Concerned with ‘analogue’ approaches and technologies, any editing is done ‘in camera’ and several films contain multiple exposures within the same frame. The two camera obscura installations directly investigate and display the behaviour of vision and light, and the aperture motif which is reiterated in other works, connects representations of the eye to the camera.

A major new16mm film work Papagaio (Djambi) 2014, shot in São Tomé and Príncipe (a Portuguese speaking Island nation off the western coast of Central Africa), bears witness to a West African voodoo ritual, known locally as D’Jambi. Whilst intoxicated, the participants dance and enter a state of trance in which they channel the spirits of the dead. At times the footage is shot by the artists, and at other moments the camera becomes an alibi, held and manoeuvered by one of the participants.










Today's News

February 4, 2015

In one hour, five paintings by Claude Monet fetch $84 Million at Sotheby's London

Terra Foundation announces John Davis as new Global Academic Programs Head

'Degas, Cézanne, Seurat: The Dream Archive from the Musée d'Orsay' on view at the Albertina

A major American painting formerly owned by Andy Warhol acquired by the Barber Institute of Fine Arts

'To Kill a Mockingbird' author Harper Lee to publish second novel: "Go Set a Watchman"

Staff at United Kingdom's National Gallery begin five-day strike against creeping privatisation

A free exhibition of drawings and prints from Salvador Dali, 1930's-1970's opens at the National Arts Club

Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito's first solo exhibition opens at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Exhibition of photographs by Moroccan-born artist, Lalla Essaydi on view at Galerie Edwynn Houk

Master Drawings New York delivered ardent collectors as well as good sales to 30 of the top world dealers

Powerful exhibition at the Reading Public Museum explores history of slave trade

Keno Auctions Winter Sale achieves $3.4 million for masterworks from the 18th through the 20 century

Major survey exhibition of architect David Adjaye's work opens at Haus der Kunst

McMichael presents exhibition 'Vanishing Ice: Alpine and Polar Landscapes in Art, 1775-2012'

Shelburne Museum's Pizzagalli Center wins Hobson Award

A collection of iconic photographs by Dana Gluckstein on view at Boston University Art Gallery

Out of Fashion: Works by photographer Landon Nordeman on view at Hagedorn Foundation Gallery

First institutional survey show of James Richards opens at Kunstverein Munchen

West Kowloon Cultural District marks the construction of M+ museum with planting of time capsule

UNESCO voices alarm over reported book-burning in Iraq

Swastika graffiti at Nazi concentration camp

Camden Arts Centre opens exhibition of works by João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva

Major exhibition of Siberian artist Zorikto Dorzhiev opens at the State Tretyakov Gallery




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 




Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)


Editor: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful