QUADROLOGIA PENTACÓNICA
A film by von Calhau!
Shown here, at maat ext. Cinema, from 15 August to 15 October 2020.
QUADROLOGIA PENTACÓNICA (something along the lines of “Pentaconic Quadrology” in English) is an 18 minute silent film directed in 2010 by Marta Baptista and João Alves, the art duo known as von Calhau!. The film was produced by transferring footage from four 16 mm films shot between 2008 and 2010 onto a digital format.
Each of the films gave rise to a soundtrack released by the duo in 2011 on vinyl under the homonymous name of !Calhau!. While the film remained largely under the radar, the album, the transdisciplinary duo’s first, was picked up by the critics who deemed it “unclassifiable”, “a ripe object designed, from start to end, to be the opposite of earlier records which were the result of concerts or improvisation sessions.” (Pedro Rios, “Estranha missa”, Público, March 21, 2011).
The four tracks on the QUADROLOGIA PENTACÓNICA LP can be heard here.
Von Calhau!, "Quadrologia Pentacónica", 2010. Video, 4 16 mm films transferred to digital, 18 minutes. Directed and produced by von Calhau. Camera and editing by von Calhau! and Frederico Lobo. Actors: Gabriel Abrantes, António Poppe, Mumtaz, Makatuko and von Calhau!. Production support ("Lâmina Animal"): ZDB.
Marta Baptista and João Alves met in 2006 at a workshop that involved electronic short-circuiting. They have worked together since that time, later adopting the name von Calhau! to identify themselves as a collective, and are very active on the art scene in Porto, where they founded Oficina Arara in 2010 with other artists.
The exhibition Nailed Rathorics (maat, 12/02–24/08/2020) curated by DOXAMITRAX – a pseudonym adopted by the artists themselves – presents a group of hitherto unseen pieces (including the artist book Acéfalanterna) that offer the visitor a visual tour of a sizable slice of the duo Von Calhau!’s work over the last ten years.
