VON CALHAU!Crocodoxa

One of the working principles of Von Calhau! is mutation or, in other words, impermanence. A work created years ago can reappear in another context, in another shape, without, however, losing its initial integrity. One can see in this procedure a sort of eternal return, a whiting with its tail in its mouth, the ouroboros, the one who devours its own stern. The exhibition "Crocodoxa" is not an exception, as it is possible to find older works in dialogue with new pieces, thus adding other meanings to the path of the artists, practitioners of an art of escape, where every move can be interpreted as the counterpoint of the previous.

Water is one of the central elements of the show. The Crocodile swims and washes in it, in an infinite loop. The reptile can therefore mask his tears, if only for brief instants, the necessary to consummate the illusion. His paradox is of visual order: does he cries or bathes? Mourns or relaxes? Sneezes or drinks? With a line of Othello, in a scene where Ludovico and Desdemona also enter, Shakespeare tells us: “Oh, devil, devil!/ If that the earth could teem with woman’s tears,/ Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile./ Out of my sight!”

An exhibition to pull out crocodile tears, then. And there's also a hand that trembles, or wasn’t this a show at Seismograph; a shower, for those who need to expiate guilt, which dies single; and a drawing, in fact three, previously inedited, although dated from 2012 and made between York, Glasgow and Penzance.

For voyeurs, bearded men and women, for lovers of self-reflective anecdotes, oxymorons – "the crocodile is an animal of a cruel kindness" – and almanacs – especially “borda d’água” [“water edge”, title of a portuguese tradicional almanac] – Oulipians – the current vice-dean of the college is Her Magnificence Crocodile Lutembi – and Pataphysics, this project of Von Calhau! proposes a succession of occurrences and correspondences, which then falls into a loop for one hour and a half. A cycle of eight chapters, that recalls Heraclitus of Ephesus’ motto: “Everything changes and nothing remains still... and... you cannot step twice into the same stream.”

Oh heck! Get it out of my sight!

This is an exhibition to reduce us to tears! We’re all crocodile skin just thinking about it!

Von Calhau! was born in 2006. It is the designation of the body of work developed in communion by Marta Ângela and João Artur. It operates in gaso-remelted zone separating vital rhythms of choreographed streams. It has been presented work in Europe and surroundings.
 

* The exhibition has, for the opening and the following days (thursday to saturday, 5:30–7pm), a fixed and predetermined duration of 1:30 hours. Only during this period the Sismógrafo doors are open.