Work, Sound, Word, Laziness
José Valente
An original sound composition for the exhibition REHEARSAL FOR A COMMUNITY – Portrait of a collection under construction (take 1).
The exhibition-installation REHEARSAL FOR A COMMUNITY — Portrait of a collection under construction (take 1) is composed of four inter-related “stages” or thematic sections: Work – Word – Sound – Laziness. The exhibition-installation creates an intimate relationship between the visual arts and the performing arts through continuous provocation of performative action on the part of the visitor and through the scenographic / theatrical elements of the exhibition setting, underpinned with original text and music that accompany us throughout.
Original contributions, a text by Gonçalo M. Tavares and music by José Valente, are a possible script for a new fiction we create in our encounter with the dozens of works present in this arrangement of the collection that invokes various collective, social and political memories. The participation of these two creators from different disciplines of the visual arts forms part of an aim to intensify the narrative polyphony of the exhibition project. Emphasis is thus placed on the singularity and heterogeneity of the works as protagonists in a story that runs in parallel to image, text and sound. These components contaminate and appropriate each other in an organic construction which eschews a totalitarian or orthodox orientation in order to reinvent the real through the deconstruction of historical time.
The musical composition Work, Sound, Word and Laziness by José Valente, specifically conceived for this exhibition, is divided into five movements, four of which correspond to the thematic sections of the exhibition, and a fifth that is manifested in a comprehensive sound environment which both integrates and contaminates the entire exhibition space.
The manner in which these fictions of word and sound add new interpretations to the interpretation of exhibited works, and the manner in which text and music can merge into a single work, were critical parts of the work process. The encounter between words and music ultimately provokes a sensation of a dense environment, a perverse and disturbing experience. The “stages” that structure the psychological and architectural design of the exhibition are the centres of its four thematic sections – Work – Laziness – Word – Sound – and serve to make each visitor/performer a protagonist in the exhibition. From each “stage”, visitors face an audience composed of works that “experience” the musical composition and the fragment of the fictional story corresponding to each of the themes.
— Paulo Mendes, curator
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In 2021, maat inaugurated a new programme around the EDP Foundation collections. Both collections — Portuguese Art and Energy Heritage — are regularly presented within the spaces of Central through an invitational series of curatorial projects by diverse experts, researchers and thinkers that are intended to engage with this reservoir of knowledge from multiple intellectual vantage points. By providing alternative conceptual and scholarly interpretations, the programme aims to bring forward new readings to enlighten historical, social and technological narratives that go beyond those of the collection itself. The EDP Foundation Portuguese Art Collection was started in 2000 with the aim of encompassing several generations of contemporary Portuguese artists, as well as assorted expressions of artistic creation such as painting, photography, video and installation. Continuously evolving with yearly acquisitions, the collection comprises approximately 2,400 works by more than 330 artists.
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José Valente is an award-winning composer and violist. He holds a PhD in Contemporary Arts from the University of Coimbra. Among the concerts he has participated in, the following stand out: Carnegie Hall (invited soloist), Union Square Park (solo concert), Imaxinasons Festival, Maria Matos Theatre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Bookaroo Festival (India), Rauf R. Denktas Cultur and Congress Centre in Famagusta (Cyprus). He has worked with Paquito d'Rivera, Dave Douglas, Don Byron and Alberto Conde, among others. Valente has received the honourable mention in the 2009 Lopes-Graça Composition Prize, and he was winner of the artistic projects competition Serralves em Festa 2010. His album Serpente Infinita was awarded the 2019 Carlos Paredes Prize. His new album Trégua, for viola and philharmonic band, is a winning project of the Phonographic Publishing Support by the GDA Foundation and the DGArtes Creation Support.
José Valente and Gonçalo M. Tavares were asked by Paulo Mendes, curator of the exhibition REHEARSAL FOR A COMMUNITY – Portrait of a collection under construction (take 1), to iconoclastically appropriate the works featured in the exhibition, which covers a historical period of collective memory from 1942 to the present. The manner in which these fictions of word and sound add new interpretations to the interpretation of exhibited works, and the manner in which text and music can merge into a single work, were critical parts of the work process.
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© José Valente. Photo: Paulo Mendes Archive Studio.
"Articulated as a space for discussion and active reflection, REHEARSAL FOR A COMMUNITY is based on an experimental path that questions the institutional place of art itself."
Paulo Mendes
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José Valente, "Work, Sound, Word, Laziness (excerpts)", 2021 9 min 58 s
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José Valente: musical composition and production, orchestration, violas, knives, organ, synthesizers, vocals (backing vocals), piano and timpani Jorge Moura: recording, sound capture, mixing, mastering in space* and technical production Gonçalo M. Tavares: texts Marta Bernardes: lead vocals for Work and Sound Ricardo Vaz Trindade: lead vocals for Word and Laziness
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*The available excerpts are not mastered, as the mastering was made for the exhibition venue and during its course.
José Valente's "Work, Word, Sound and Laziness", in collaboration with Gonçalo M. Tavares and Paulo Mendes, is a commission from maat.
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