Transformer Station
1460 W. 29th Street
Cleveland, OH 44113
Wed–Sun: 11–5, Thurs: 11–8
FRONT Film Program
Rise, 2018
Total run time: 20 min.
Commissioned by the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto. Courtesy the artists and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro
In the underground spaces of the Toronto new subway extension, a group of poets, rappers, singers and musicians negotiate their status as both first- and second-generation Torontonians as well as settlers living on borrowed Indigenous land.
Show times: Sundays July 29, August 5, August 19, August 26, Sept. 9, Sept. 16, Sept. 30 at 1:00 pm
Estás vendo coisas (You are seeing things), 2017
Total run time: 18 min.
Courtesy the artists and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
In the darkness of a nightclub, hairdresser Porck and firefighter Dayana try their luck as Brega singers while plotting their course from studio to stage. Gestures are followed by melodies about love, betrayal, luxury and power in an experimental documentary about how pop music is experienced as a new form of labour in the Northeast of Brazil.
Showtimes: Wednesdays July 18, August 8, August 29, Sept. 19 at 1:00 pm; Sundays August 5, August 26, Sept. 16 at 1:00 pm
Faz que Vai (Set to go), 2016
Total run time: 12 min.
Courtesy the artists and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro
As a series of annotations on the relation between body, camera and movement in the documentation of a typical dance of the Northeast of Brazil, ‘Faz que Vai’ comments on the meaning of the carnivalesque used in diverse strategies of preservation of Frevo as an image, heritage and product.
Showtimes: Thursdays July 19, August 9, August 30, Sept. 20 at 6:00 pm; Sundays August 5, August 26, Sept. 16 at 1:00 pm
Artists Biography
Bárbara Wagner (Brasilia, 1980) & Benjamin de Búrca (Munich, 1975). Trained as a journalist and photographer Brazilian artist Bárbara Wagner understands how media is implicated in manipulating perceptions, often creating historical myths and stereotypes. Since 2005, she has independently produced photographic series and publications on the representation of tradition, both in Brazil and abroad. The German born, Irish artist Benjamin de Búrca has a practice in the arts since 2000 where painting, photography, and video are equally important in his work. Working in collaboration since 2011, they are interested in the space documentary and art both share. Their more recent investigations concentrate on collective practices and traditional rituals specifically manifested in the body of youths living in the peripheries of Brazil’s Northeast which lose their connotations of symbolic resistance to become products of tourism and entertainment industry. Wagner and de Búrca participated in the 33rd Panorama de Arte Brasileira (São Paulo), 36th EVA International (Limerick), 32nd São Paulo Biennial and 5th Skulptur Projekte Münster. They live and work in Recife, Brazil.
