TEATRO ANATÓMICO

Created by João Sousa Cardoso
With the Treger Saint Silvestre collection
Invited artists: André Sousa + Fernão Cruz + Horácio Frutuoso

By invitation of the Centro de Arte Oliva, João Sousa Cardoso has created a unique perspective on the Treger Saint Silvestre collection, one of Europe’s leading collections of art brut/outsider art, in a site specific project in which the interplay of bodies, objects and presence generate a dialogue with the tradition of theatre.

The exhibition is inspired by the anatomical theatre of Padua, the world’s first permanent room of its kind, visited and admired by Goethe on his trip to Italy. Installed in 1595, was a symbol of scientific progress in the study of anatomy and served as a model for anatomical theatres for Europe’s most important universities. ANATOMICAL THEATRE aims to dissect and reflect a complex, winding and organic collection, that is normally far removed from the world of contemporary art. At the same time, it inspires a local sensorial experience that implies the participation of bodies and materiality associated to images, in the age of the virtual economy. And, in a political gesture, it encourages us to think about the cruelty capable of suspending the cycles of barbarism.

Artists: Agnès Baillon, Albert Moser, Alireza Maleki, Franck Lundangi, Hassan, Horst Ademeit, Jacques Deal, Jean-Jules Chasse-Pôt (Paul Rancillac), Jorge Varela, Josef Wittlich, Marc Giai-Miniet, Martin Erhard, Mettraux, Miroslav Tichý, Peter Caddy, René Bértholo, Sam Nhlengethwa, Tomasz Machciński e Valentine Fournier