Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Brazil’s Vitor César and Poland’s Karol Radziszewski are the artists selected by Associação Cultural Videobrasil and A-I-R Laboratory for the second edition of the Videobrasil in Context project, one of the Videobrasil Residency Program actions. A-I-R Laboratory, the partner for this edition, is the artist residency program of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, in Warsaw (Poland). In March, César took his first trip to Warsaw to become acquainted with the program and the facilities where he will work on his research from May to July 2015. In 2016, it will be Radziszewski’s turn to pay his first visit to Videobrasil Collection, in São Paulo.

Videobrasil in Context was created in 2012 to foster exchange, connecting young artists from the global South to the Videobrasil Collection through the creation of commissioned artworks to become part of Videobrasil’s collection. The second edition ushers in a new format for the program, as one Brazilian and one foreign artist are selected to develop art projects by immersing themselves into the collections of Videobrasil and those of different partner organizations in each edition, engaging in research work during artist residencies.

Vitor César’s project will focus on the connections between Warsaw’s archives and its urban surroundings, approaching the city as an archive unto itself. For his part, Karol Radziszewski will have the chance to explore the Videobrasil Collection, comprising 1300-plus titles such as videos, video installations, and footage from performances, as well as archives that recount the history of Videobrasil’s activities, including documentaries on artists, publications, statements from curators, artists and researchers, recorded seminars, photographs and publications, amounting to over 4500 titles.

At the end of the residency, each of them will present the outcomes of their experiences in a commissioned artwork, which could be a video, video installation, performance, or publication. These artworks will be integrated into the collections of Associação Cultural Videobrasil and the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. They will share their work processes online in first-person accounts on the In Residence blog.

The partnership with A-I-R Laboratory for the second Videobrasil in Context edition is intended to build exchange actions that will benefit artists from the global South, encouraging the flow of mutual interchange in the visual art field. Videobrasil in Context also updates and re-signifies the Videobrasil Collection, one of the most relevant video and performance collections from the global South, under new foci and perspectives. 

About the artists

Vitor César | vitorcesar.org

Vitor César
Está no ar a sua voz, a nossa voz (A Voz do Brasil), 2011-2014

Vitor César (1978) was born in Fortaleza and lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. His art explores various modes of visibility based on the political dimension of daily life; he also works on graphic projects. César studied Architecture and Urban Planning at the Federal University of Ceará (2003) and holds a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo (2009), with research on the notions of public space in art practices. In Fortaleza, he was a member of an art study group at Alpendre – an artist-led multidisciplinary facility – and of the Transição Listrada group, which carried out actions and performances in the city; he also founded BASE – a venue for meetings, debates and exhibitions. César co-organized the Arte e esfera pública project under the government program Conexão Artes Visuais – Minc/Funarte (2008). Since 2005 he has worked on the Basemóvel project, whose latest edition was held during the exhibition Campo Neutral (Museu da Gravura, Curitiba, 2013). He held the exhibition Anfibologia, reciprocidad (Museu experimental El Eco, Mexico City, 2013). César was also featured in the 33^rd Panorama of Brazilian Art Brasileira (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, 2013) and in the 8^th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre, 2011). He completed residencies at Capacete (Rio de Janeiro, 2010) and MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, 2006). César created the graphic identity for the XI SITAC – International Symposium on Contemporary Art Theory (Mexico City, 2013). He has recently taken part in the Mano fato mano project (Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, 2014), in collaboration with curators, artists and architects.

Karol Radziszewski | karolradziszewski.com

Karol Radziszewski
America Is Not Ready For This (2012)4

Karol Radziszewski (1980) was born in Bialystok (Poland) and currently lives and works in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, where he completed a master’s degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. He works in film, photography, installation and interdisciplinary projects. His practice spans magazines, artist’s books, fashion, and curated projects. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine, a Central and Western European art magazine focusing on homosexuality and masculinity. His work has been shown in venues such as the National Museum (Warsaw, Poland), the Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw, Poland), the Zacheta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw, Poland); Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, Austria); New Museum (New York, USA); Cobra Museum (Amsterdam, Holland); Wroclaw Contemporary Museum (Wroclaw, Poland) and Muzeum Sztuki (Lodz, Poland). He has been featured in international biennials such as PERFORMA 13 (New York), the 7^th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (Sweden), the 4^th Prague Biennale (Czech Republic) and the 15^th edition of the WRO Media Art Biennale (Wroclaw, Poland).