Gabriel Abrantes. Artificial Humors

Gabriel Abrantes
Artificial Humors, 2016
Single-channel video, colour, sound, 29΄
Produced by Herma Films, with the financial support of Fundação de Serralves (PT), Bienal de São Paulo (BR), Colección Inelcom (SP), ICA – Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual (PT)
Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Francisco Fino, Lisbon

Artificial Humours follows a young indigenous girl from Mato Grosso to São Paulo, where she responds to the love of a flying robot that also happens to be a stand-up comedian. This bizarre story conflates the anthropology of humor, indigenous communities, romance, and artificial intelligence, whilst Abrantes contrasts notions of tradition and progress, confirming and illustrating the truism that love – like beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.

Gabriel Abrantes is a filmmaker whose practice is grounded in an exploration of cinematographic language. He addresses historical, political and social matters with a special focus on postcolonial, gender and identity issues. His films, which touch upon folklore, current realities and politics, create layers of unlikely readings by subverting traditional narratives through the use of absurd humour. Hollywood aesthetics are mixed with documentary and experimental film techniques, digital and analogue technologies.

In filmmaker Gabriel Abrantes’ films, Hollywood aesthetics are mixed with documentary and experimental film techniques, and digital technologies meet their analogue counterparts.  Using absurdist humour and subverting the traditional narrative tropes, Abrantes addresses historical, political and social matters with a special focus on postcolonial, gender and identity issues.

Biography

Gabriel Abrantes lives and works in Lisbon. He explores cinematographic language in his films and videos – he writes, directs, produces and occasionally also acts in them. His films have premiered at the Cannes, Berlinale, Locarno, Venice Biennial, and Toronto international film festivals. They have received a number of awards, including the Grand Prix at the Semaine de la Critique, the EFA prize at Berlinale, the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival, and the EDP Young Artist Award. His work has been exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery and Tate Britain (London), the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the MIT List Visual Arts Center (Boston), the Kunst Werke (Berlin) and Serralves Museum (Porto). He participated in the 32nd São Paulo Biennial, the 2016 Bienal Tropical, and the 2014 Bienal d’Image Mouvement. His work has been shown in retrospective screening series at the Lincoln Center (New York) and BAFICI (Buenos Aires).

www.gabrielabrantes.com

 

 

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