Metaphoria III

Nina Beier, Adriano Costa, Rui Costa, Hans-Peter Feldmann, David Horvitz, Kenneth Goldsmith, Ana Jotta, Jeremy Millar, Pepo Salazar, Karin Sander

Curated by Silvia Guerra

Metaphoria III is the third edition of a series of exhibitions in Europe that envisions contemporary art as a research platform.

What can we do with art today? How can we break out of the enclosed space of the so-called “visual” arts? These concerns are at the heart of Metaphoria, a series of group exhibitions, born from a dialogue between Silvia Guerra and writer Rui Costa. Its peregrinations, from the north of Portugal in 2011, to Athens in 2013, and today to Paris, are a concrete illustration of this desire for openness.

Each chapter of this project explores and develops the theme of the “metaphor” as a medium but also in terms of its meaning in Modern Greek today, i.e., a “means of transport” from one place to another, and from one world to another. The Metaphoria project started eight years ago in 2010 and has developed over time, a timeframe that is long enough for ideas and perspectives to evolve from one edition to the next.

The fact that a curatorial project can unfold or evolve from a certain point in time and space is a rare thing nowadays: this is more usually the case with large international events, but not for small-scale projects like this one, typically characterized by a certain duration.

In the works presented and in its scenography, Metaphoria III offers a strange kind of reflection of our everyday lives. The artists invited to participate in this edition transport some of the elements of ordinary modern life out of their habitual context, thus revealing the ambiguity and poetry harboured within. Items of second-hand furniture can therefore be seen amongst works by Nina Beier, Adriano Costa, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Kenneth Goldsmith, David Horvitz, Ana Jotta, Jeremy Millar, Pepo Salazar and Karin Sander, as well as Adam and Eve, figures reworked and reinterpreted by Rui Costa in his last novel, who can be found in the exhibition space at weekends, deep in conversation.

“Poetry and myths willingly lend themselves like a movement that brings together multiple temporalities, where ancient and recent history undergo a concertinaing effect. They allow us to explore our ways of living together, of building a shared space, ‘two lived-in rooms’ where ideas can germinate. It’s not about analyzing or producing a discourse on Europe, art and/or language, but instead of condensing mental images within the framework of an exhibition. An exhibition as a space of questioning: today, what do you want to do with art? Where do you store your memory–in books, hard disks? What part of its weight do we want to carry? All that remains is the memory of poetry, this unique language whose intelligence is non-descriptive. 

“An exhibition like a journey or a house that we all live in together. Everything is contained within this new place with its landscape and context; an archaeology museum in one of the European Capitals of Culture in northern Portugal; the last floor of an abandoned building in the red light district of Athens, as part of the ReMap Biennale, and Centquatre-Paris, which for over 120 years was the municipal funeral home. The first hall, on the Rue d’Aubervilliers, was used for the fabrication of coffins. Metaphoria III carries in itself its own history, the memory of the poet who passed away during the inception phase, and the hope of a new world where we will all desire to live together, like Adam and Eve, but without the serpent.”
–Silvia Guerra

The entire Metaphoria series has been produced by Lab’Bel, created in 2010, in collaboration with venues that have succeeded in welcoming and presenting each exhibition as a veritable research platform or think tank—the very raison d'être or purpose of the Bel Group's artistic and cultural fund.