TBA21 ANNOUNCES THREE ARTISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SECOND SEASON OF ST__AGE
In the midst of the pandemic and with exhibition circuits around the world closed, in September 2020 the Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation (TBA21) launched st_age platform. In its first season, the fully online exhibition and exchange space invited artists such as Yeo Siew Hua, Himali Singh Soin, Patricia Domínguez and the Saraab duo, among others, to present their projects.
The second season is just a few days away and opens this March. After a successful launch with the first season, where the artists exhibited, the foundation created by Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza announced three of the artists who will exhibit in st_age: Diana Policarpo (Portugal), Courtney Desiree Morris (United States) and Claudia Comte (Switzerland).
The creation of st_age has been a support strategy that TBA21 developed during the pandemic with the aim of encouraging artists to continue producing and exhibiting. Under this premise, the platform asks the artists invited to create projects conceived for the digital space. Furthermore, exploiting the possibilities that online platform offers, all the projects are published together with complementary materials such as an interview between curator and artist, or a dialogue with the research teams, for example. In this sense, st_age is not only an exhibition space, but also an environment created for debate and awareness-raising in relation to critical issues of the 21st century through artistic production and research.
As explained from TBA21, the second season is conceived around two main conceptual axes: Water and Healing. However, and with the aim of confirming its multidisciplinary character and, in short, the very perspective that both st_age and the foundation have of contemporary art, an ambitious programme related to fashion, gastronomy, architecture and design will be added to the projects of the invited artists.
About the announced artists
As part of her After Nature, a solo exhibition that Claudia Comte opens at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza on May 11th, the Swiss artist produced a digital piece specially conceived to complement it. The exhibition is the result of a residency at the Alligator Head Foundation in Jamaica during 2019. Invited by the TBA21-Academy programme, Comte developed a whole sculptural series that explores the current condition of corals and the destruction of knowledge that their disappearance implies.
On the other hand, the Portuguese artist and composer Diana Policarpo (Lisbon) will present a series of videos made in collaboration with the Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. The videos, created for the exhibition Nets of Hypha —currently exhibited at the Norwegian institution—, are designed to be experienced with the reproduction of soundscapes that can be tuned in from a mobile phone as well as from a computer or notebook.
Finally, Courtney Desiree Morris will present Sopera de Yemaya. Under a philosophical conception that the sacred exists in every corner of the earth, even in the most mundane practices, this experimental short film explores the course of African American history from their forced exile in colonial times to the present day, with movements such as Black Life Matters. In addition, the project is built around the deity Yemaya, whose link to water and the oceans is presented as a central figure in the artwork, extending the dialogue to environmental issues and the spiritual decay that results from their destruction.
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"Underwater Cacti Series", 2019, Claudia Comte. East Portland Fish Sanctuary, Alligator Head Foundation in Portland, Jamaica. Commissioned by TBA21–Academy. Photo: F-Stop Movies.
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"The Oracle", 2020, Diana Policarpo. Video still. HD film, 16:9, color, 12'28" (in loop). Produced by Kunsthall Trondheim and Galeria Municipal do Porto. Courtesy of the artist.
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"Sopera de Yemayá", 2020, Courtney Desiree Morris. Single-channel video installation, color, sound. 7 min 31 sec. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.
