Porto – Ouvroirs d'Univers Potentiels

OuUnPo[RTO] “RECREATIVE TEMPORARY ORBIT”

April 3-6, 2012

«As ideias são prodigiosas – elas e a maneira como se associam. Num momento, descobrimos que atravessamos o mundo, e que transpomos o infinito entre dois pensamento.» Fernando Pessoa

This OuUnPo session gravitated around concepts such as path, ceremony, decadence, heteronomy. The title OuUnPo[RTO] stands for “Recreative Temporary Orbit,” a loose concept encouraging any kind of approach to decipher the city, its artistic scene and its social political concerns in times of financial crisis. The program was shaped as an imaginary book and each chapter was freely refering to a quote of Fernando Pessoa. The content of each chapter was kept secret until the first day’s “Prologue” while the actual program remained unknown until its gradual unfolding. Participants were asked to bring a bathing costume and a completely black outfit.

Photographic documentation can be found here and here.

Some highlights of the program

The session included talks, performances, book presentations, night walks and rituals by visiting and local artists, curators and musicians. Different forms of collective agency were explored. From a collective musical improvisation with the Shrosh Ensemble, the group engaged for the first time in a collective performance especially conceived by the session’s curators for the exhibition Locus Solus at the Museu Serralves. A tribute to Raymond Roussel’s inventions and games, the performance used a score of instructions as a machine to trigger a theatrical game which revolved around Marcel Duchamp’s La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires même. Another form of relatedness, awareness and perception has been explored by Per Hüttner and Fatos Üstek with Her Sad Pardone at the stunningly beautiful Chapel of the Lord of Stone, a small church overlooking the ocean. The performance consisted in an exercise in contemplation which led to the production of texts. These texts, first hidden by the participants and then recollected by Fatos Üstek through a magical pendulum, were read aloud leaving the group in a silence full of astonishment. Those being read were in fact beautiful literary and philosophical texts that the performers had selected and already hidden around the temple. The contributions of the participants were left to be discovered by anonymous passers-by.

Organizers

Claudia Squitieri and Samon Takahashi. Curatorial assistance Maud Malon.

Participants and Contributors

From the OuUnPo network: Yane Calovski, Raffaella della Olga, Sara Giannini, Per Hüttner, Elena Nemkova, Daniela Paes Leao, Marco Pasi, Claudia Squitieri, Samon Takahashi, Fatos Üstek, Stephen Whitmarsh

Local Participants: Jose Almeida Pereira, Casa Viva, Miguel Carvalhais, André Cepeda, Ewen Chardronnet, Sandra Correia, Lisa Cepeda, Gustavo Costa, Norberto Fernandes, Joao Filipe, Miguel Flor, Fundaçao, Diana Gonçalves dos Santos, Marita Lumi, Celia Machado, Susana Medina, Maud Malon, Loreto Martinez Troncoso, Cristina Regadas, Srosh Ensemble.

Partners and Venues

Culturgest, STOP, Gaia, Casa da Musica, Fundaçao, Maus Habitos, Serralves Casa Rosa, Museu Fundaçao Serralves, Materia Prima, 559, Miramar, Inc., Plaça Marques Plombal, Casa Viva, Cometa Restaurant.

Supported by Linköpings universitet