Joana Bastos: Ask me

Kunsthalle Lissabon is proud to present Ask me, a new project by Lisbon-based artist Joana Bastos. The show's title is a reference to the exhibition assistant position, commonly known as Ask me. An Ask me, easily identified as such by the sort of uniform he or she wears, usually a t-shirt, has as main task to answer to questions posed by the contemporary art institution's visitors, in an effort to translate and contextualize, for a wider audience, the artistic and curatorial proposals put forward in the exhibition space. For her project at Kunsthalle Lissabon, Bastos will take over the exhibition space, becoming completely responsible for its functioning and maintenance as well as for welcoming and helping all of Kunsthalle Lissabon's visitors with any questions or doubts they may have. By simultaneously putting herself in the position of both subject and object of her own artistic practice and explicitly questioning the distinction between visual artist/performer and employee of an exhibition space, Bastos intends to shed some light into the complex relations between notions such as artwork, artistic practice, labour and capital.

Joana Bastos was born in Lisbon in 1979, where she currently lives and works. She graduated with a MFA from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2008, a Postgraduate from the same college in 2007 and with a BA Hons in painting, from Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon in 2004. Bastos has started her artistic activity in the beginning of this decade and some of her solo shows include Black Journeys, Lagar do Azeite, Oeiras (2006); 8&80, Instituto Camões, Luxembourg (2006); Blindfolded, Way of Arts, Estoril (2005); Ink, Lagar do Azeite, Oeiras (2003). She was also part of the following group shows: Impossible Exchange, Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London (2009); Entre o Céu e o Mar - Allgarve, CAV no Centro Cultural de Lagos, Lagos (2009); Job Interviews, Battersea Art Centre, London (2009); Propeller Island, South Kensington Artists Run Space, London (2009); Employability, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2008); 7 Artistas ao 10 Mês, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2008); Condensation I, Decima Gallery, London (2008). She is represented by Vera Cortês Art Agency.

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