School of Arts opens exhibition "It's Night in America" by Ana Vaz
On July 4, over two hundred people attended the inauguration of the exhibition "It's Night in America", by the Brazilian artist Ana Vaz, curated by Daniel Ribas. A moment that integrated the public programme of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema 2022: Brazil - Cross Dynamics of Otherness, organised by the School of Arts, of the Porto Regional Centre, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. "It's Night in America" had its world premiere at the prestigious Jeu de Paume, in Paris, and is a commission and production of Fondazione in Between Art Film, co-produced by Pivô Arte e Pesquisa and Spectre Productions.
"In this exhibition, based on material filmed in Brasília, Ana Vaz deepens her research on the confrontation between the modernist utopia of the city with the animals, so-called 'wild', in a kind of experimental horror film, questioning our preconceptions about city, nature, human or ecology", says Daniel Ribas, coordinator of the Master's Degree in Cinema and curator of the exhibition at the School of Arts of the Catholic University in Porto.
Ana Vaz is one of the most relevant contemporary artists and filmmakers, having her films and exhibitions circulated in several museums, festivals and film libraries. Her work is marked by a constant experimental challenge on the poetic forms of contemporary cinema, highlighting the deep contradictions of our time, especially with the destructive practices of institutions.
The inauguration was attended by filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho, João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora, guest directors of this edition of Porto Summer School on Art&Cinema. "It's Night in America" is an exhibition in the format of a film installation recorded at the Brasília zoo, habitat of hundreds of rescued species in the city. Giant anteaters, maned wolves, owls, bush dogs, capybaras, caracas meet with biologists, veterinarians, caretakers and the environmental police, who through a grim plot where the challenges of life preservation weave a web of intersecting perspectives. In this iteration, the exhibition expands poetically, as well as archival, storytelling and conversation into an illusionistic diorama where it is possible to observe and be observed. Ultimately, who are the real captives? The creatures or us?
The exhibition will be open to the public until 7th October. Admission is free and open to the entire community.