Gaiás, Cidade da Cultura
Escenas do cambio 2022

3—5 May 2024
Festival of theatre, dance and art in action
Gaiás, City of Culture

Xunta de Galicia

3—5 Maio 2024

Festival de teatro,
danza e arte
en acción

Xunta de Galicia

Body that becomes an image

António Gonçalves da Costa

Friday 3 May 1 p.m. [opening]
City of Culture | Gaiás Centre Museum, Floor 0

António Gonçalves returns to Ecce Corpus, a performance he gave in 1999 based on research into works by Chris Burden, Herman Nitsch, Marina Abramovic and Orlan, recovering the record of the images of the act in an immersive installation that renews the experience of contact with them.

A work that speaks of the power of the image as a record of memory and of the meaning given to retained time.

At a time when we live more than ever surrounded by images and the discussion about their veracity or authenticity, to return to this performance is to bring an uneasiness to the experience of the observer. A reflection that pricks the sensibility through the fusion of images of different actions and times in which the use of the body is revealed as the basis of a physical or simulated action that, as a final trace, leaves in us only a projection, an image.

António Gonçalves da Costa

António Gonçalves da Costa is a visiting professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto; he holds a degree in Fine Arts from the same university and a PhD in Art History from the University of the Balearic Islands. As part of the Erasmus programme 1998-1999, he attended the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Cuenca, where his project Ecce Corpus was born. He works as a painter, curator and director of several galleries and museums in Portugal. Since 2023, he has been the director at the Nogueira da Silva Museum (Braga), the Monção House Museum and the Gallery do Paço (Braga) at the University of Minho. He has been the curator of the Ala da Frente Gallery (V.N. Famalicão) since 2015. He is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto.

He was also a trustee of the Cupertino de Miranda Foundation (V.N. Famalicão) from 2010 to 2018 and artistic director between 2002 and 2018. He also held the position of vice-president of ACAMFE (Asociación de Casas-Museo y Fundaciones de Escritores de España) between 2014 and 2018, and worked as assistant professor at the ESAP-Escola Superior Artística do Porto (Guimarães extension) from 2002 to 2014.

Data sheet

Portugal | Free entrey until full capacity

Images with captions: Ecce Corpus (based on performances by Orlan, Chris Burden, Hermann Nitsch and Marina Abramovic),1999-2020.

The installation can be visited free of charge during the opening hours of the Gaiás Centre Museum (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.), during the days of the festival.

World Premiere