ESTRELA, Alexandre; MARIA GUSMÃO, João; PAIVA, Pedro (eds.)
Lua Cão

Lua Cão is a journey that commenced in a cave in the Azores and has gradually mutated into different presentations, first at ZdB in Lisbon, then at the Kunstverein München in Munich and now at La Casa Encendida in Madrid.

Published on the occasion of the fourth staging of the eponymous exhibition by Alexandre Estrela and João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Lua Cão isn’t just a catalogue, but another of the many constellations that comprise the show. Curated by Natxo Checa, the exhibition—commenced in a cave in the Azores and shortly after travelled to Zé dos Bois in Lisbon, Kuntsverein München in Munich, and lastly to Madrid—is a choreographed and immersive moving-image experiment, which tests the intersection of the three artists’ works, 16mm films and digital videos triggered at different moments over the course of a four-hour cycle, like a panoptic cinema. Featuring images from all the four exhibition chapters, a 16 pages reprint of Lua Cão (Tom & Jerry) (Amsterdam: ROMA Publications, 2018), conversations, emails, and essays by a group of critics, curators and participants to the event, the catalogue recounts the phenomenology of the project, all sides of its prism. The journeys inspiring the realization of metaphysical works of art, reflections on imploded cinema, Portuguese gastronomy and the joys of projectionism, considerations on the somatic properties of Lua Cão, loose thoughts on art and time, volcanic tunnels, melon-shaped skulls, spiderwebs, drunken zombies, demonic dogs, and the digestive benefits of Coca-Cola.

[publisher's note]

Published by Mousse Publishing, 2018
Exhibition Catalogues / Group Shows