Pés de Barro / Feet of Clay

Curated by Chus Martínez and Filipa Ramos.

Artists: Neïl Beloufa, Isabel Carvalho, Gabriel Chaile, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Formabesta (Salvador and Juan Cidrás), Tamara Henderson, Ana Jotta, Eduardo Navarro

Some may associate clay, pottery and ceramics with tradition, and tradition with the past. Some may associate technology, digital communication and data with the new, and the new with the future. What if the future is only a technology as old and unusual as clay? What if clay is a matter that renews itself constantly and gives time its unpredictable configurations?

What if clay is the future and the future is clay? And if the feet of clay only reveal a vulnerability because the rest of the body is made of a different material? And if the feet of clay are actually rooting people to the earth, connecting them through the same matter? And if feet of clay are a way to establish a post-technological communication that requires no webs, no networks, no cables; only our many, one, two, eight, twenty feet and some clay?

These are some of the inquiries and riddles put forward by the curators Chus Martínez (curator, art historian, writer and director of the Art Institute of the FHN W Academy of Art and Design Basel) and Filipa Ramos (writer and Art Basel Film curator and co curator of the last edition of Fórum do Futuro) so as to bring together a group of artists who have been using clay, pottery and ceramics to imagine, project and shape the world they live in.

For media inquiries:
Hernâni José Reis Campos Batista: hernanibatista@agoraporto.pt
Tiago Guimaraes Dias Santos: tiagosantos@agoraporto.pt