Alexandre Estrela: Métal Hurlant

Curator: Sérgio Mah

Since the mid-1990s, Alexandre Estrela’s work (Lisbon, 1971) has been distinguished by the original and idiosyncratic manner in which it brings together and superimposes a wide range of domains, themes and references: from perception studies to science fiction, from popular culture to cinema and the visual arts. In the case of the latter, it is worth highlighting his manifest interest in the legacy of the experimental and conceptual practices that contributed decisively to the formation of an indefinable and unclassifiable heterodox field between the visual arts and experimental film, giving expression to a vast and penetrating examination of the nature and reach of the image.

Metal Hurlant was conceived for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation exhibition space in Paris. It brings together a total of nine recently-produced works—four of which have not been publicly exhibited to date. In these works, the artist continues to explore issues and themes related to the qualities of (technical) images and the intrinsic potential of devices to capture, edit and display images, particularly in the field of video. For the artist, the eminently factitious and paradoxical character of the image implicates an entire field of possibilities to reformulate (destabilise, circumvent, expand) the arc of relations and transmutations between image, medium and perception. However, in this exhibition—of which the title offers us a first indication—the presence of a specific material stands out: metal. A material examined both as a theme and as a physical feature of some of the projection screens, the works are thus strongly committed to their physical and spatial conditions, highlighting the sculptural and architectural aspects of Alexandre Estrela’s work.

By deviating from figurative expectations in order to explore the visual potential and semantic derivations of images, Alexandre Estrela seeks a new perceptual and artistic horizon, an alternative field of visual experiences, where images, beyond their specific value, fulfil a heuristic function and investigate the wealth of connections between the fixed and the moving image, between figuration and abstraction, between two and three-dimensionality, between sound, image and materiality, manifestations of a particular speculative and creative universe that looks towards the manner in which technological devices enable processes of transition, transformation and reconfiguration of the visible.

Alexandre Estrela (1971) lives and works in Lisbon. Recent solo exhibitions include Lua Cão (with João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva), a project initiated in 2017 by Galeria Zé Dos Bois in Lisbon, that traveled to the Kunstverein München, and will conclude at La Casa Encendida in Madrid in 2018; Knife in the Water, 2018, at Travesía Cuatro, Madrid; Ouro Mouro, 2018, at the Quetzal Art Centre, Vidigueira, Portugal; Baklite, 2017, at CAV Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra, Portugal; Cápsulas de silencio, 2016, within the Fisuras Program, at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Roda Lume, 2016, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp, M HKA, Belgium; Meio Concreto, 2013, at Museu Serralves in Porto, Portugal; Um homem entre quatro paredes, 2013, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil; The Sunspot Circle, 2013, at The Flat Time House, London, UK, among others.

The artist has also participated in numerous group shows in institutions and biennales such as: Anozero – Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra, 2017, curated by Luíza Teixeira da Freitas; L’exposition d’un Rêve, 2017, at Gulbenkian Foundation Paris, ACMI Melbourne and TATE Modern, a project by Mathieu Copeland; Hallucinations, Documenta 14, 2017,  Athens, a festival curated by Ben Russel, etc.

Since 2007, Alexandre Estrela is the director and programmer of a non-profit art venue in Lisbon called Oporto.