The exhibition A VERY THIN LINE curated by the independent curators Inês Valle and Mafalda Budib brings together six visual artists Bumi Thomas, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Nilbar Güreş, Nikki Luna, Rita GT and Lorena Wolffer who through their art practices have been giving voice to female narratives.

An exhibition that interrelates a mix of emotions, medias and narratives by inviting the audience to experience the very dark and the very bright, as a result of tension between vulnerability and resistance, love and pain that is constantly whispered in our daily struggles.

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PROGRAM Between 31st July – 19th August there will be a series of Live performances and Art talks with the artists.

OPENING PROGRAM | 31 July – 8pm
LIVE PERFORMANCE | BETWEEN WORLDS by Bumi Thomas
The performance will feature three songs inspired by the tension between the seen and unseen. They will reflect the tension of transition, a struggle to reclaim the forgotten, the release that transpires at the moment of reinvention and how that impacts the sense of being complete. Historically the Udu originates from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, West Africa and is a vessel used to fetch water, typically by women. This object evolved into an instrument also predominantly played by women for ceremonial purposes. The implosive sound of the Udu in many ways mirrors the subversive role imposed on the feminine by society. In the context of her performance, the Udu will be used as a symbol of dispersal. A vessel through which cultural resonance is preserved or reinvented. For Thomas this is a journey of musical and historical discovery that embraces the evolution of the sound of Igbo women and how it reacts when it collides with external cultures. In this case the transatlantic echoes of shared yet distant realities.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS :

Chun Hua Catherine Dong, born in China, is a visual artist working with performance, photography, and video. She received a M.F.A. from Concordia University and a B.F.A from Emily Carr University Art & Design in Canada. She has performed in multiple international performance art festivals and venues, such as, The Great American Performance Art in New York (2015), Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival in Chicago (2015), InfrAction in Venice (2013), Dublin Live Art Festival in Dublin (2014), Miami Performance International Festival (2016), Kaunas Biennial in Lithuania (2013), Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn (2014), Select Art Fair in New York (2015), ENCUENTRO Performance and Conference in Santiago (2016), Internationales Festival für Performance in Mannheim(2013), Place des Arts in Montreal (2014), and so on. She has exhibited her works at Fernando Pradilla Gallery in Madrid (2016), The Schusev State Museum of Architecture in Moscow (2015), Gera Museum in Vrsac (2014), New Art Center in Boston (2014), The Others Art Fair in Turin (2014), Delhi Photo Festival in Delhi (2013), The Aine Art Museum in Tornio (2013), VMU art gallery“ 101” in Kaunas (2014), Art Museum at University of Toronto in Toronto (2014), Articule in Montreal (2014), and Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver (2014). Her video work has be en screened in Brazil, Mexico, Finland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Colombia, Spain, The Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Greece, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, China, USA, and Canada. Among many other awards and grants, she is the recipient of Franklin Furnace Award for contemporary avantgarde art in New York in 2014. Her performance is featured at Marina Abramovic Institute and listed amongst the ‘‘Top Nine Political Art Projects of 2010’’ by Art and Threat magazine. Dong now lives in Montreal.

Rita GT gained a BA in Communication Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto and attended to the MA program in Fine Arts from Malmö Art Academy – Lund University in Malmö, Sweden. Solo exhibitions include: Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2015); Instituto Camões, Luanda (2014); UNAP, Luanda (2012); Bienal de Viana do Castelo (2010); Empty Cube, Lisbon (2009); Gallery Reflexus, Porto (2009); and PêSSEGOpráSEMANA, Porto (2007). Group exhibitions include: Tiwani Gallery, London (2015); KunstKraftWerk, Leipzig & Freies Museum/Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (2015); Museu do Chiado, Lisbon (2013); Arts on ENGLISH PRESS RELEASE | JULY – AUGUST www.ceraproject.com London, United Kingdom Main – Goethe Institut, Johannesburg (2013); Soso Contemporary African Art Gallery, Luanda (2012); Museum of the City, Lisbon (2011); Tatoli Ba Kultura, Díli (2011); CCB – Museu Berardo, Lisbon (2009); Arte Contempo, Lisbon (2007); Natural History Museum, Lisbon (2007); and the Rothschild Prize, Lisbon (2007). Rita GT is the founder of the e-studio Luanda project and the commissioner for the Angolan Pavilion, curated by António Ole at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015).

Nilbar Güreş (Istanbul, 1977) received a BA degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, İstanbul, and then completed her MA degree in Painting & Graphics from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Some of the major exhibitions Güreş participated in are 20th Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island, Australia (2016); Serralves Museum, Porto (2015); Malmö Konstmuseum (2015); Artspace Auckland (2015); SeMa Biennale Mediacity Seoul (2014); EVA International Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City (2014); The 31. Bienal de Sao Paulo (2014); MAK, Vienna (2013); The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2011); 6th Berlin Biennial (2010); Secession Vienna (2010); 11th International İstanbul Biennial (2009). And touring exhibition “Tactics of Invisibility” at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2010); Tanas, Berlin (2010-11) and at ARTER, Istanbul (2011). The artist’s solo exhibitions include MQ, Vienna (2011); Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2011); Rampa, Istanbul (2011), Iniva, London (2010-11); Rivington Place, London (2010) and Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2009). She completed a residency at the Lutetia Building, FAAP’s Artistic Residence Program, São Paulo in 2014; International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York supported by the Austrian Government in 2012. She received the Otto Mauer Award of 2014 and Fifth edition of the BC21 (Belvedere Contemporary) Art Award 2015 in Austria. Nilbar Güreş lives and works in Vienna and Istanbul.

The artist Nikki Luna hails from the Philippines where she studied painting at the University of the Philippines (UP). She continued her studies in an art residency at Cooper Union in New York City. During this time, she began to explore topics of feminism in her art, a theme that still permeates through her work today. Luna is currently attending her Master in Women and Development Studies in UP. Luna chooses to use non traditional materials in her installations and sculptures. Such materials are often those that can be found in a domestic setting, such as diapers, eggs, milk and mirrors. Her use of such materials helps create a commentary from a feminist perspective. Not only do her works speak for women in general, but particularly geared towards the female experience within the Philippines. Nikki Luna is founder of the non – profit organisation, StartART Project. This organisation provides art workshops and psychosocial services for residents of conflict zones in the Philippines. The project partners with human rights organisations to benefit children who are victims of poverty. The artist lives and works in Manila, where she manages her organisation and develops her body of work. Luna has exhibited her work throughout the Philippines but also internationally in cities such as Milan, Beijing, New York and Singapore. Exhibitions include Art Stage Singapore (2011) M! Milan International Art Fair (2011), Japan Aichi Triennale (2013), SINGAPORE BIENNALE (2013), 5TH Beijing China Biennale (2012), “After image” MUSEO DI ARTE MODERNA E CONTEMPORANEA DI TRENTO E ROVERETO (2014/2015), Vargas Museum UP Diliman QC (2013), “Shallow Grave” Equator art gallery Singapore (2013), “Beat” exhibit Lopez Museum Ortigas (2012), among others.

Bumi Thomas is a London based visual artist whose artistic philosophy is essentially about transcending cultural boundaries and inverting realities with abstract constructs using photography and music as her mediums of exploration. ‘The human voice is a raging canvas through which words and melodies as mimic patterns of realities. l tell stories about movement, displacement, joy and humanity.’ Born is Glasgow to Nigerian parents, and imbued with a deep curiosity about contructs of fixed identity, she creates thought provoking paradigm shifting pieces that question the function of post-colonial perspectives. Thomas believes in the importance of creating physical/ ideological spaces that encourage women to engage in dialogue about gender issues, take authorship for how they are perceived historically, and reclaim their identity through ART, self-exploration/representation and positive contributions to society.

For over twenty years, the work produced by artist and cultural activist Lorena Wolffer (Mexico City, 1971) has been an ongoing site for enunciation and resistance at the intersection between art and activism. While her own work addresses issues related to the cultural fabrication of gender and advocates women’s rights, agency and voices, she has also produced, facilitated, and curated dozens of projects with numerous artists in platforms such as museums, public spaces, and television. From the creation of radical cultural interventions with various communities to pioneering pedagogical models for the collective development of situated knowledge, these projects are produced within an inventive arena that underlines the pertinence of experimental languages and displaces the border between so-called high and low culture.

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