Slow Gala was a group exhibition with Sara Bichão, Lawrence Weiner, Manon Harrois and Valentina Desideri in 2022, curated by Maša Tomšič and Andrea Rodriguez Novoa, at Sixty Eight Art Institute in Copenhagen.
The piece 0, exhibited in the gallery space, was previously the subject of a performative act by SB for the BoCA Biennale in 2021. A video of this action, ZERO, was also shown on this occasion through a QR code.
“A body implies eventual use, and therefore, wear and strain. It needs nurture. And it requires other bodies. Physical labor was at the basis of Sara Bichão’s action piece “0”, which also relied on shared effort. The performance is characterized as an intercorporeal act that reminds one of the unavoidable necessity of the collective or negotiated aspect of achieving a goal. “0” took place on the river Tagus in 2021 and was in every sense a materialization of endurance, one that had to assume, or better, allow for the unpredictable, untamed, and open-ended quality of any voyage. However, this particular passage was not to merely reach the end of the line, to follow a linear path from the point of departure to the point of arrival, but to carry and let appear out of a melting block of ice an instrument – in fact, a very specialized kind of tool: a weapon. An item with inherent risk, imbued with promise and potentiality.”
Excerpt of the text by Maša Tomšič, 2022
© Maša Tomšič and Sixty Eight Art Institute
Full text by Maša Tomšič, 2022, below: