daata fair 2020: Héctor Zamora | EN/PT

Hector Zamora’s video “O Abuso da História” is the result of an act of artistic freedom. The images were made from a performance at the historical building of the Matarazzo Hospital, in São Paulo. “It consisted of three hundred potted tropical palms being thrown violently out of the windows and into one of its patios (…). After the performance, the plants were left to take root, allowing nature to reclaim its own order. In a sense, the work stood as a metaphor for throwing Tropicalism out the window, of attempting to overcome a lineage that has a dominant influence over artistic expression in Brazil. Moreover, the initial chaotic pile of fallen plants and broken pots was in part a sarcastic response to the prominent clichéd role of the palm in every exoticist narrative of the history of Brazil”. 

The video was made after the homonymous performance. According to the Curator Itzel Vargas Plata, “Héctor Zamora merges the special characteristics of the building with a mechanical activity, generally associated with the female gender, to set out diverse lines of interpretation of a sociological and political character related to the local and global context. Zamora critically refers to the functioning of the governmental, bureaucratic and institutional systems of power and points to the role of the secretary in the misogynist, capitalist workforce. The subjugation and invisibility of the female role are subverted by the artist in a type of homage-action that establishes the participants as the sole presence during the action, while they weave a self-referential narrative as they type their own biographies. The constructive, visual and sound elements of Memorandum make reference to assembly plants, factories and workshops. They reveal the disadvantages of forming the least-valued link in the chain of machinery, hence the word used for the title, which means ‘what must be remembered.’ Zamora provokes memory, in the institution, in this country, and as a witness to the present times”.

For his first solo show at the Palais de Tokyo, curated by Vittoria Matarrese, Héctor Zamora presented the performative installation “Ordre et Progrès” [Order and Progress]. The video was made from the performance “that evokes the deconstruction of the symbolic universe and the hopes connected to the idea of navigation. (…) The artist gathers, at the space Orbe New York – whose large windows open for the Seine –, several fishing boats, which are slowly dismantled, part by part, during the extent of the show. According to the artist, “the boats symbolize the adventure and the discovery, but also represent the hope for shelter or the possibility of surviving in a hostile environment. If they communicate a social imaginary fed by major historical epopees, today they are equally connected to the migration crisis”. With this installation, Héctor Zamora continues to reflect on the fragilities of contemporary social-economic models and on the deconstruction of part of the modern western ideals. From the initial vessels – like large-format ready-mades – to the final debris, the piece plays on the evolving relationship between form and space. Its sculptural aspect also derives from the act of demolition. In this way, Héctor Zamora “dissolves the imaginary promises that these boats convey”. This dissolution under axe-blows expresses the brutal transformation of the fishing industry and the violence of worldwide socio-economic upheavals. The artist thus short-circuits the vision of history as perpetual progress of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), the French philosopher from whom the title “Order and Progress” has been taken”.

The video came after “Nas Coxas” [on the thighs], a performance that was the unfolding of the action “Capa e Canal”, staged in 2018 on the occasion of the 11th Bienal de Artes Visuais do Mercosul. The curator Helena Cavalheiro explains: “for about two hours, men and women modeled approximately 700 clay roof tiles on their own legs. Seated on wooden stools, the 12 performers selected by Zamora produced a commentary on the popular expression “feito nas coxas” [literally, “made on the thighs”], a popular expression that denotes something made in a slipshod way. In the video installation, presented here for the first time, the pieces produced during the action are accompanied by a large-format video, produced on the basis of never-before-shown images recorded during the rehearsal of the action held in Porto Alegre. The etymological origin of the expression “feito nas coxas” is as imprecise as its meaning. The most popular hypothesis is that it is associated with the manufacture of “ridge and channel” roof tiles, also known as the “barrel” type, much used in Brazil and constructions during the colonial period. According to this version, “fazer nas coxas” referred to the slaves’ lack of skill in the making of roof tiles, using their own thighs as molds. There is, however, another possible origin for the expression, based on the customs of colonial Brazil: in that period, when the practice of sexual relations before marriage was forbidden by societal norms, the expression made reference to an incomplete sexual act, carried out quickly and furtively.

In “Nas Coxas”, Zamora makes provocations based on the border between the two meanings of the expression. On the one hand, the thesis anchored in the tradition of civil construction is questioned. In the video, the framings focused on the legs of the performers show our natural morphological variations, especially in a country like Brazil, where racial mixing is the rule. The material result of this heterogeneity is the set of roof tiles that we see in the video, forming a sort of impossible roof whose pieces are so irregular it has more gaps than areas of closed surface. On the other hand, the languor of the gestures, the viscosity of the materials and the sound of the movements imbue the tile-making process with sensuality, reinforcing the meaning linked to the socially unacceptable yet recurrent sexual behavior in colonial Brazil.

Even while it questions the thesis that it is possible to construct roofs on the basis of human thighs, the work also points to the physical effort that methods of rudimentary civil construction like those in our country have always demanded, until today. A high price has always been paid: in the past by the laboring slaves and, in the present, by the precarious worker, who is still part of the civil construction scene. Moreover, the semantic ambiguity instated by the artwork poses questions about the weight attributed to the possible origins of the expression. By investigating the popularity of the meaning linked to low-quality production by slaves, the action raises a question about who was ultimately responsible for the shoddy workmanship in our country. Was it the black slave submitted to forced labor, or the white master who used the body of that slave not only as a work tool but also, secretly, for his pleasure outside of working hours?”.

Also named after the homonymous performance, “Material Inconstancy”, according to Rieke Vos, “investigates the organization of communities and how urban and architectural environments are expressions of a culture’s sense of place. Introducing temporary scenarios, he intervenes with the social and physical structures of urban spaces and responds to the historical, cultural, or political specifics of the site. He twists collective memories, desires, and fantasies, providing room for new understanding. Ceramic brick is another motif that often reappears in Zamora’s work. It is a primary element of construction that in its quotidian and universal nature is unobtrusive, yet it contains an enormous wealth of culture and history. In “Material Inconstancy”, presented at the 13th Istanbul Biennial, bricks are the focus of a dynamic live performance. About 35 bricklayers occupy the hall of a modernist building of Mimar Sinan University in the centre of Istanbul and toss bricks from one person to the other in a continuous loop. Material Inconstancy is a choreography of construction with which Zamora foregrounds the intimacy, the physicality, and the delicacy of corporal configuration in the construction of buildings and societies”.

The video “Ensayo sobre lo Fluido”, by Héctor Zamora is the footage of the performance realized at the art school complex located at Cubanacan, in Havana (Cuba), during the 12h Havana Bienal. As explain Barbara Beatriz Laffita Menocal at the time, “(…) the project that Mexican artist Héctor Zamora is developing in within the framework of the 12th Havana Biennial is part of this dynamic effort. On May 21 through 25, 2015, the Garatti School of Music will host an orchestra that had never been able to play there. The audience must be warned, however, that it will witness, not just a concert. An entertainment of this nature would not be a fitting tribute to such an innovative architecture of high aesthetic value. The school’TMs zigzagging shape is sculptural; and a peculiar work indeed: its site acoustics acts as sounding board for virtually any instrument. Therefore, nothing can play along with the ‘Worm’ (the facility’TMs popular designation) better than a sound production. And the Worm will ‘come to life’ thanks to a piece that has been specifically composed in its honor! Inspired by this facility, Cuban songwriter Wilma Alba Cal embarked on a creative adventure. Produced in cooperation with Héctor Zamora, the piece posed a challenge for its composer. On the one hand, its score needed to include melodies that would operate as sort of ‘decoys.'And on the other, the acoustics and space distributions within the site required that its players (seventy in total) be arranged in unusual positions; otherwise, not all of them would be heard. In other words, the players would be both soloists and absolute owners of their allocated compartments, as well as accompanists and links in a composition that only their auditorium would be able to enjoy. The audience will not only find pleasure, but also its reactions to the sound stimuli will help build the performance. For her invitation to tour, and in passing, get lost in this sensual and labyrinth-forming edifice, Vilma carefully studied the position to be held by each musician, both as soloist and as a member of a chamber ensemble (exactly the same structure that the Italian architect had designed for the use of individual compartments). At the entrance of the hall, a female choir will usher in the plastic representations. In order to create a ‘warm and homogeneous’ atmosphere, the choir will be followed by strings and winds. Their performance will advance in crescendo; and gradually, other differently formatted strains, arranged in broader segments, will be joining in. In this part, the intention is to provide widely diverse tones, consistently with the surprising twists and turns of the surrounding architecture. This perception of dynamism will be maximized not only by the arrangement of the musicians in the hall, but also their relaxing musical interpretation, with moments of improvisation and greater engagement with the audience, free from the solemnity imposed by their concert hall. A work of this nature requires a ‘completely new time perception of space;’ accordingly, another resource that could reinforce the organic link between vision and sound was required: lighting. Thoughtfully engineered, the spotlighting setup makes the musicians observable and provides a visual composition that, in its interaction with sound, gives rise to an artistic product. Following the course of his previous works, Héctor has poetically contextualized this intervention, and in those terms, he has depicted his view of the transition in progress in the Island. Finally, the classrooms within the Worm will host not only the natural music of their environment (singing birds, murmuring river and whispering winds through leafy trees) and/or echoing sounds from the distance; but also musicians, whose performance will cause the building to vibrate with energy. Here is an invitation to delight one’TMs mind. The chosen ‘scenario’ will also be imposing a performance of multiple meanings. Everything is allowed, except for the flow to stop.”