c_Ieva Martinalis

RENAN MARCONDES

Artist and researcher of performance art and its articulations with dance and theater. He holds a PhD in Performing Arts from the University of São Paulo, with an internship at the Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen (Germany). His background includes undergraduate and master's degrees in Visual Arts and a specialization in Art History. He is currently doing postdoctoral work at ECA USP with a Cnpq scholarship. His thesis was contemplated in 2022 Prêmio Tese Destaque USP and published in a book by Annablume publishing house. Some of his main projects include Protectors of Human Proximity (MAJ SESC 2015 award; Temporada de Projetos do Paço das Artes; 43rd SARP acquisition award) and How a tortoise killed a jaguar and made a harmonica out of one of its bones (ProAc 2015, award from the performance sector at SP-Arte 2015). In 2018 he was awarded the Creation in Residence Prize for young choreographers at MIS SP and in 2020 by the 25th Festival Cultura Inglesa. In 2019 and 2022 he was nominated for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Scholarships and Commissions Program. With his practical and theoretical work, he has participated in shows such as VERBO (2019 and 2015), Sesc Dance Biennial, International Theater Show, IC Encontro de Artes, among others. His solo exhibitions include: Contra Corpo (Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, 2015), What the body shelters (CAAA, Portugal, 2017), Fundo Falso (Instituto Adelina, 2018) and Pinóquio (Centro Cultural Correios, 2021). His main residencies include Pivô (2019), CAAA (Portugal, 2017) and Instituto Sacatar (2017). He has works in the collections of the Museu de Arte do Rio, Museu de Arte do Espírito Santo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Ribeirão Preto, the municipal collection of Santo André and the Pinacoteca de São Bernardo do Campo.

How is it possible to create an idea of presence that is invisible? Or that it is as close as possible to absence? Renan Marcondes produces long-term projects and series, each hovering in a zone somewhere between the visual and performance arts, which demonstrate an interest in the materiality of human bodies in a state of rest, passivity or powerlessness. This translates into situations in which bodies are affected or constrained by sculptures built specifically to be worn; or in situations where the performer's body has little or no agency, needing to be moved or stimulated by other bodies or forces. ‘I present images where a body is expected and bodies where an image is expected’, says the Brazilian artist.

A certain passivity is a guiding element of the work, and the situations in which the artist places himself and the performers are generally pathetic, absurd and repetitive. In The Greatest Museum in the World, 2019, a body is lying down. The spectator watches the performer slowly move and make contact with a series of organic, singular and small objects – a tooth, an eyelash, earwax – placing them neatly in a kind of miniature museum. These seductive actions place the body in a ritualized exchange between audience and performer, with minimal movement and a sense of what remains after the movement ends.”

Ana Mazzei, 2023 

Renan Marcondes, is an artist and researcher of performance art and its articulations with dance and theater. He holds a PhD in Performing Arts from the University of São Paulo, with an internship at the Justus Liebig Universität in Giessen (Germany). His background includes undergraduate and master's degrees in Visual Arts and a specialization in Art History. He is currently doing postdoctoral work at ECA USP with a Cnpq scholarship. His thesis was contemplated in 2022 Prêmio Tese Destaque USP and published in a book by Annablume publishing house. Some of his main projects include Protectors of Human Proximity (MAJ SESC 2015 award; Temporada de Projetos do Paço das Artes; 43rd SARP acquisition award) and How a tortoise killed a jaguar and made a harmonica out of one of its bones (ProAc 2015, award from the performance sector at SP-Arte 2015). In 2018 he was awarded the Creation in Residence Prize for young choreographers at MIS SP and in 2020 by the 25th Festival Cultura Inglesa. In 2019 and 2022 he was nominated for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Scholarships and Commissions Program. With his practical and theoretical work, he has participated in shows such as VERBO (2019 and 2015), Sesc Dance Biennial, International Theater Show, IC Encontro de Artes, among others. His solo exhibitions include: Contra Corpo (Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, 2015), What the body shelters (CAAA, Portugal, 2017), Fundo Falso (Instituto Adelina, 2018) and Pinóquio (Centro Cultural Correios, 2021). His main residencies include Pivô (2019), CAAA (Portugal, 2017) and Instituto Sacatar (2017). He has works in the collections of the Museu de Arte do Rio, Museu de Arte do Espírito Santo, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Ribeirão Preto, the municipal collection of Santo André and the Pinacoteca de São Bernardo do Campo.

Current and future exhibitions

solo show | 07/07 | oma | São Paulo

On-line materials
Art Review: Future Greats 2023: Renan Marcondes  
#Na Varanda com Renan Marcondes | Odiar os artistas: ensaio 1
Exposição Ensaio para uma cidadania mundana no #GaleriasdoParque