Nuno Sacramento

(Dundee, Utrecht and Lisbon)

 

1973 b. Maputo, Mozambique. Lives and works in Dundee, Utrecht and Lisbon. Works as independent curator and develops practice-based doctoral research in the same area.

 

What is the common denominator to all practicing artists, formalist or conceptualist, network based or isolated, professional or outsider?

The fact that they output work through physical formats which are carried into exhibitions is common to all of them. In other words, the often portable abstractions they create have a physical presence, and are constituted by visual elements. These colours, symbols, drawings and shapes are studied by art historians and then fitted into categories of groups and schools. In an attempt to sideline the art historical approach, Nuno aims to bring to the center of the discussion around contemporary art and its dissemination, the role of display conventions in the mediation between art and audience.

Through a visual mapping and understanding of the physical structures that constitute exhibitions (architecture, installation design, objects, interaction and information materials) he intends to provide some variations on the way contemporary art is displayed and received. Revisiting the experimentation of The Constructivists and the Bauhaus, the work of A. Dorner, El Lisstzky, Moholo-Nagy, as well as the American couple Charles and Ray Eames etc. Nuno aims to develop a system which is based on a mixed articulation of curatorial concept and physical structures.

The assumption that exhibitions are often based on concepts that are poorly translated into 3 dimensional space fuel this ³diagrammatic² investigation into exhibition space. From the retinal fruition of most painting and photography, to the physical engagement of complex installations objects and shows come under scrutiny on a level that creates ³tabula rasa². The ³White Cube² type of gallery has survived the transition from Modernism to Post- Modernism and has been a canon of display for the last 50 years. But is it going to be around for much longer?

 

More info: www.perspexenvelope.org