Jogo do Sério



Work of art seeks work of art for Staring Contest — an open call for a Museu occupation.


As we learned when we were kids, in a staring contest, one cannot smile, blink or even look away. All those things are subjected to the ultimate penalty: defeat. When two bodies face each other in a Staring Contest, the tension between them is too evident. There is no place for compromise.

In this curatorial project, we ask the artistic community (and beyond) to suggest one or more objects that can be partnered up with the exhibited work.

In this second moment, from March 6th to September 4th, a partner was sought for João Onofre’s Ghost (2009 – 2012).

After the deliberation of the jury, the second Staring Contest features a work by the artist Felippe Moraes, in response to the already announced work by João Onofre. The relationship between A Distância do Horizonte and Ghost seemed to the jury to be the most appropriate, taking into account the curatorial assumption, despite the quality of the various proposals submitted.

Let’s play a Staring Contest. One body facing another. They must stare at each other. Whoever smiles, looks away or blinks loses. To be still, but not motionless: the play is on as it games on lethargy. A contribution to a symmetry of intentions, broken by the asymmetry on the surface.

Daniel Madeira

João Onofre was born in Lisbon in 1976, where he lives and works. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, earned an MA in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1999), and holds a PhD in Contemporary Art from the College of Arts of the University of Coimbra (2018). In 2022 he was awarded the University of Lisbon /CGD Prize in the Arts.

Recently solo shows include: João Onofre, Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto (2021); Once in a Lifetime [Repeat], Culturgest, Lisbon (2019); Untitled (orchestral), MAAT, Lisbon (2017).
He has exhibited widely his work individually in several museums and galleries internationally, namely: João Onofre, I-20, New York (2001-2006); João Onofre, P.S.1. / MoMA Contemporary Art Center, New York (2002); Nothing Will Go Wrong, MNAC, Lisbon, and CGAC, Santiago de Compostela (2003); João Onofre, Kunsthalle Wien. Project Space Karlsplatz. Wien (2003); João Onofre, Magazin 4, Bregenz (2004); João Onofre, Toni Tàpies, Barcelona (2002-2005-2007); Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon (2004-2007-2012); João Onofre, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin (2007-2011); Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2011); Marlborough Contemporary, London (2014); Kunstpavillion, Munich, Alemanha (2015); Appleton Square, Lisbon (2016).

Onofre took part in numerous international group exhibitions, amongst them, most notably: Plateau of Humankind – The 49th Venice Biennale, Human Interest at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Performing Bodies, Tate Modern, London;Youth of Today, Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt; Video, An Art, A History 1965-2005 New Media collection, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Sydney- Contemporary Art Museum; Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona; Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan; Postscript: Writing After Conceptual Art, Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Punk. Its Traces in Contemporary Art, CA2M, Atrium, Vitoria-Gasteiz; and MACBA, Barcelona.

His work is represented in public and private collections worldwide such as: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou – MNAM/CCI, Paris; The Weltkunst Foundation, Zurich; La Caixa, Barcelona; MACS – Museu de Serralves, Porto; CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; MNAC – Museu do Chiado, Lisbon; GAM – Galeria D’Arte moderna e contenporanea, Turin; Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Florida; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Centre National des Arts Plastiques- Ministère Culture, Paris.

www.joaoonofre.com

Felippe Moraes (Rio de Janeiro, 1988) has been developing his career as an artist, researcher, and independent curator since 2009. He lives and works between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). He holds an MA granted by the University of Northampton (UK) and is a member of the Deliberative Council of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) of Niterói. His research is centered on the epistemology of reason and its relations with spirituality, mythology, and ancestry as possibilities for reenchanting the world. 

His main individual projects are Samba Exaltação (2021), a series of neons with quotes from Brazilian songs, which materialized as an urban intervention in Vale do Anhangabaú in São Paulo, then as a solo show at the MAC in Niterói and a special project at the Museu de Arte do Rio. In 2021, he performed Samba da Luz at the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade and the Estação da Luz. In 2019, he presented Solfejo at the Centro Cultural Fiesp and LUZIA at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra in Portugal. 

Previously, he held the solo shows Imensurável (2018) at Caixa Cultural Fortaleza; Proporción (2018) at Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo in Montevideo; Cosmografia (2017) and Ordem (2014), both at Baró Galeria in São Paulo; and Progressão (2016) at the MAC, in Niterói. He is the author of the public works Monumento ao Horizonte (2016) in Niterói, and Monumento a Euclides (2017) in Romania. His work is in collections such as the Museu de Arte do Rio, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea do Rio Grande do Sul, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, and Centro Cultural de São Paulo.