BATTLE ROYALE [2022]

BAG - BANCO DAS ARTES - GALERIA [Leiria, Portugal]
Curated by Jorge André Catarino
Ana Velez | Joana Gomes | Maria Sassetti | Xana Sousa

This exhibition had the institutional support of the República Portuguesa Ministério da Cultura

Battle Royale is an expression that designates a combat involving several opponents, in a fight of all against all, in which only one will emerge victorious.

The exhibition of the four artists from Atelier Contencioso, Ana Velez, Maria Sassetti, Joana Gomes and Xana Sousa, starts from the analogy between Painting, the ring and the playing field.

The square of the ring or the board defines pure spaces: spaces within which everyday contingencies are suspended, establishing a new set of rules, only valid within them. In the case of modern painting, the logical conclusion of the purification process of all external constraints established its disciplinary limit in the monochrome square: its pure space. Battlle Royale is played on the fringes of all these spaces, establishing common limits.

In this exhibition, we find paintings in an extended field, which incorporate non-artistic objects, materials or processes - without, however, abandoning the referential universe of Painting. In this sense, we speak of Painting as a place, territory, but also of its possibility as a combat ground and ritual space, imbued with its own liturgy.

Jorge André Catarino













Photos © Atelier Obscura and Ana Garrido