“Immoderate Bodies” – Couve-Flor Video Performances

Brazilian collective Couve-Flor –Minicomunidade Artística Mundial.

Couve-Flor’s first exhibition presented in the USA comprises a selection of seven works created for the camera between 2003 and 2012. The videos depict the body as a central potency of tension, desire, memory, alteration and irony in dialogue with cultural archetypes, fetishes, anthropology, loss and eroticism.

Albeit most of the works differ in their narrative treatment and depiction, the passage of time circumscribing the embodied experiences and altering the subject is evoked in every work. Being it by objective or subjective alteration, the body of the performer is generally activated as the platform to prompt critical perspectives on the subjects addressed by these artists.

Presence, absence and intimacy are also constantly reflected on the works presented in the installation.

About Couve-Flor:

Formed in 2006 by seven independent artists who currently live and work in different cities such as New York, Miami, Berlin, Salvador and Curitiba, Couve-Flor – Minicomunidade Artística Mundial is composed by Cândida Monte, Cristiane Bouger, Elisabete Finger, Gustavo Bitencourt, Michelle Moura, Neto Machado and Ricardo Marinelli (Stéphany Matannó is also a former member of the collective).

Working individually as well as in collaboration, Couve-Flor artists’ intertwines contemporary dance, visual arts, critical writing, theater and performance. Their live performances and video works have been presented in Brazil, the USA, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Romania, South Africa, Peru, Martinique, Equator, Uruguay and Cuba.

In Brazil, the collective received prestigious grants and awards such as Programa Petrobras Cultural 2011-2012 and Prêmio Funarte de Dança Klauss Vianna 2006.

Beyond their own production, the collective organized, curated and promoted performance events, workshops and residencies with artists from Brazil, the USA and Hungary. From 2007 until 2012, the collective’s hub, known as Cafofo Couve-Flor, served as studio and performance space for the artists and their community in Curitiba, in the south of Brazil.

In the end of 2011, after seven years of intense exchange and production, the members of Couve-Flor – Minicomunidade Artística Mundial publicly announced the death of their collective. Seven personal letters written by the artists to their artistic community on facebook addressed the reasons and feelings about the end of Couve-Flor, which was scheduled to occur in December 2012.

This exhibition is part of the celebratory events that mark the dissolution of Couve-Flor and its profuse partnership.

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For additional images and press materials on this show please contact cristianebouger@gmail.com.

The exhibition Immoderate Bodies – Couve-Flor Video Performances received the generous support from Programa Petrobrás Cultural de manutenção de grupos e companhias de teatro, dança e circo (Brazil, 2010) and the support of chashama’s Windows Program 2012.