Statement
Over the past ten years, Alexandra Ferreira and Bettina Wind have been engaged in an art practice that uses multiple mediums – installation, video, text and drawings – to create multi-layered compositions of heterogeneous materials and storylines.
Inspired by a particular site, found objects, archival materials, or current events, the artistic duo develops research-based works that examine the aesthetic, political and economic dimensions of a specific situation from a translocal and multidisciplinary point of view.
Whether attributing political agency to a small cactus from the US-Mexican border zone, or temporarily burying a cheque in the “Snow White Coffin” of a White Cube exhibition, windferreira’s artistic practice is full of (self-)critical irony acting under the cover of a rather cautious and formal mode of presentation.
Although in their broad range of works the artists reach out to other fields such as architecture, urbanism, film history, economy or biology, each project hinges on questions pertaining to (art) production: What are the techniques and politics of display that underlie the presentation of material? What roles do documentation and fiction play in the making of a narrative? How can art practitioners develop strong gestures within working structures that often seem obscure and precarious?
BIO
Windferreira's collaboration brings together educational backgrounds in sculpture, visual arts, dramaturgy and literature and the experience of having studied and worked in various European cities such as Lisbon, Munich, Brussels, Barcelona, Helsinki, Paris, and the home-bases Berlin and Lisbon. Alexandra Ferreira has studied Fine Arts in the Art Academy (E.S.T.G.A.D.), at Caldas da Rainha and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelone and worked as a sculptor, among other art projects. Bettina Wind has her diploma degree in dramaturgy and literature at the University of Munich and worked as a dramaturge for performance projects and festivals before turning towards the visual arts.
The artists' work has been exhibited at international venues including the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm in Frankfurt, Dallas Contemporary in Dallas, Galeria Quadrum in Lisbon, and at the First Play New Media Festival in Berlin. The projects have been supported by the Goethe-Institut, the French Ministery of Culture, the city of Berlin and Gulbenkian Foundation, among others.
SOLO SHOWS
2013 No Record, Just a Sound, Mixed Media Installation and Performance (Gasworks and Almanac, London)
2012 Ad Hoc / Bridging, Double-Solo Show (South African National Gallery and Evil Son Project Space, Cape Town)
2010 This is Not the Documentation of a Performance (2010), Video installation
(Atelier Real, Lisbon and Ex Elettrofonica, Rome)
2009 40 Jahre Mousonturm // Eine Retrospektive, Archive installation
in collaboration with Pedro Lagoa (Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main)
2008 Mountains are for Masochists Sculpture, Photo, Text (Gallery Plumba, Oporto)
GROUP SHOWS (SELECTION)
2011Withdrawal Installation (Palais de Tokyo, Paris)
2011The Cactus as an Instigator Installation (Dallas Contemporary, Dallas)
2010 no matter how Installation (Palais de Tokyo, Paris)
2010 Wall, Paper, Wood/Tools for Exposure Installation (Galeria Quadrum, Lisbon)
2008 Pamphlets for a State of Translocality, at the exhibition „Becoming Dutch“
and in the city space of Eindhoven (VanAbbeMuseum, Eindhoven)
2007 State of Translocality: For your safety, Performance for AnAcademy
(Gasthuis, Amsterdam)
2006 State of Translocality: Enter now, New Media Festival First Play (HAU, Berlin)
PUBLICATIONS
2011 A Short Reflection Series of Posters (LabBel, Barcelone)
2011 Objects in the Mirror publication with Clare Butcher (Terminal Convention Cork) 2010 No Past Today newspaper (HIAP & Goetheinstitut, Helsinki)
2010 A small cartography for art workers, Poster (Casa da Esquina, Coimbra)
2008 Attention. Manual for Visitors, Manual (Caldas da Rainha, Portugal)
ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
2013 Gasworks, London
2010/2011 „Pavillon“ Programme at Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2010 HIAP Program Helsinki
2009/10 Atelier Real Lisbon
2007 „Caucus“ program at the VanAbbe Museum, Eindhoven