Decapitation (Steve, Crass) (2010). B/w 35mm slide projection
Decapitation (Steve, Crass) (2010). B/w 35mm slide projection
Towards a Poor Theatre (2010). Lambda print poster. Reading of Jerzy Grotowski’s Towards a Poor Theatre during the course of the exhibition (in portuguese)
Towards a Poor Theatre (2010). Lambda print poster. Reading of Jerzy Grotowski’s Towards a Poor Theatre during the course of the exhibition (in portuguese)
The Celibate (2010). Maritime pine, linen
The Winter of our Discontent (2010). Leopoldo de Almeida, Nicolau Coelho, 1948 Patinated plaster. Collection Museu da Cidade | Lisbon (MC.ESC.137)
The Winter of our Discontent (2010). Leopoldo de Almeida, Nicolau Coelho, 1948 Patinated plaster. Collection Museu da Cidade | Lisbon (MC.ESC.137)
André Romão: The winter of (our) discontent
Kunsthalle Lissabon is proud to present The winter of (our) discontent, André Romão's first solo exhibition. Romão's work explores both the overlapping of and the flaws and absences of sense in historical, literary and artistic episodes. Such exploration has as a goal the opening up of a broad field of meaning, a precarious ground between ethics and aesthetics, politics and poeticcs, historiography and mysticism. The artist acts through a continuous research on the human aspects that can be found in cultural production and, more specifically, in the inevitability of transition within historical cycles.
The title of the exhibition thus appears through two different ways: on one side, “winter of discontent” is the generic name given to a period in United Kingdom's recent history, the seventies, marked by several strikes and social upheavel; on the other side, “Now is the winter of our discontent | Made glorious summer by this sun of York”, the famous opening lines of Shakespeare's Richard III, describing the changes happening to the House of York. Both references point towards periods of change, and their inherent flaws, overlappings, energy and fear of change, which constitute the core of the works specifically developed for and now being presented in Kunsthalle Lissabon.
The winter of (our) discontent comes in line with a series of previous projects (Nothing lasts forever, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon and Everything lasts forever, Pavilhão Branco, Museu da Cidade, Lisbon), that are part of a work cycle entitled The perfect state and through which Romão researches the individual's position in a larger human community (historical, political, social, emotional) and towards the inevitable passing of time.
André Romão was born in Lisbon in 1984 and currently lives and works in Berlin. Having studied Communication Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, he is currently Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation's resident artist at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, in Berlin. Romão has shown work in O Sol morre cedo, Pavilhão Branco - Museu da Cidade, Lisbon, Portugal (2009); Democracia entre Tiranos, Galeria Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal (2009); JENSEITS, EnBlanco, Berlin, Germany (2009); Ocorrência, Galeria Baginski, Lisbon, Portugal (2008); Luoghi per Eroi, Vianuova-Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy (2008) and A river ain’t too much to love, Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2008). In 2007 Romão was awarded the EDP New Artists Award. He is represented by Galeria Baginski.
Exhibition supported by Ministério da Cultura / DGArtes.