porto vista hotel launches international artist and curatorial residency with berlin-based curator Brunno Silva
Porto Vista Hotel is pleased to welcome the first Curator in Residence, Brunno Silva. Brunno will live and work on site at the Porto Vista Hotel in San Diego from May 6, 2019 through July 18, 2019. While in residence, Silva will explore critical conversations surrounding the moving image through a series of lectures, seminars, studio visits and exhibitions that are free and open to the public. From Andy Warhol to Hito Steyerl, Silva will examine how video art has altered the art production landscape.
Brunno Silva’s Curatorial Project “The Video Contingency” is comprised of 10 lectures each comparing and contrasting two video artworks by contemporary artists between 1960 and present. Lectures will be held at Porto Vista Hotel’s Conference Room Costa Del Sol every Wednesday from 6-7:30 PM starting May 8 through July 10, 2019.
Registration Link: https://brunnosilva.eventbrite.com
Brunno Silva (b. São Paulo) is a curator, art consultant and writer based in Berlin, London and Southern Italy. With a specialisation in Western (and Western-influenced) contemporary art, Brunno has a particular interest in moving image, installation, sculpture and photography. Whilst working with emerging artists in his curatorial practice, Brunno uses current technological and social-political theory to engage audiences with artworks in context with broader aesthetic and political debates.
Lecture Series with Brunno Silva Video Art
Call to Artists
Th Video Contingency: A Curatorial Project by Brunno Silva
Video art is a relatively new phenomenon in art history and popular culture. Most accounts attribute its beginnings to the works by Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik in the early 60’s. If most of such accounts explore the experimentation of new tools, they all recognise the fact that once again a technological development would change the art production landscape. Today is almost impossible to visit an exhibition space (private or public) and not face at least one video piece being shown. If this can directly connect with the cultural evolution of imagery literacy from our society, the way we consume video artworks and all other video production, such as youtube video, movies, tv shows, could not be more different.
In our everyday life we can jump and interconnect different videos, from different times and purposes, pausing, forwarding, watching in close-caption, binge watching for hours the same content or dismissing after five seconds a video for considering it already comprehended. The way we relate to videos is digital, in an influx of remix and unconscious edit through social media, sources that now also algorithm-curate the content that we are exposed too.
In contrary, the exhibition space renders the video untamed. The viewer abdicates from all its power in controlling when the play button is clicked, how loud the volume is and most importantly the viewer cannot stop it, only escape from it by leaving the black box.
With the diffusion of devices capable of recording in high quality and compressed format, the medium became accessible and seamlessly incorporated in most phone devices, with a speed for distribution that can only be comparable with the speed that the used technology becomes obsolete, causing a process of an almost natural selection for an infinite content production capability.
Within this ecology of the moving image, the curatorial project aims to produce a joint understanding of the use of video as a method of artwork production, its documentation and how its features underline the production itself through popular narratives, such as pop culture, politics, internet studies, and cinema.
Lectures
A.1) Video art history, a comparative approach. Lectures+Seminar
The lectures explore the brief history of video art by comparative analyses of two artworks from different periods. The expositive first part will introduce the artists’ practice, the pieces’ production and ways the works have been displayed. The group will then discuss together how the two works converge or diverge in form, context, and content.
By the end of the course, participants are expected to be able to discourse on video art pieces, be aware of key contemporary artworks of moving image and engage in relevant discussions involving the use of the medium in a holistic way.
Participant artists will be motivated to experiment with video and will be offered specific one to one studio visits especially to discuss the new works.
B) Research
During the residency, I will be able to expand my research on moving image documentation by including in my pool of primary sources the local museums and experts through a series of archive visits, interviews and develop collaborations.
This component also includes studio visits to be carried throughout the residency.
C) Exhibition
By the end of the residency, an exhibition proposal will be presented including artworks observed during studio visits, research process and lectures. Bringing all aspects together in a celebration of the local scene, its most burning themes and an exploration of the moving image including local and international artworks.
ABOUT PORTO VISTA HOTEL
Porto Vista Hotel is a family owned and operated boutique hotel in Little Italy that welcomes all individuals seeking a unique experience of San Diego, California. After converting and expanding the original motel structure into a full service facility in 2008, the hotel now offers 190 guest rooms, fitness room, spa pool, multiple rooftop venues, lounges, business kiosk, lobby art gallery and the GlassDoor restaurant on the 4th floor.
In 2018, Porto Vista Hotel began working with 1805 Gallery Director Lauren Siry to launch an innovative art program that showcases contemporary local and international artists throughout the hotel, creatively activating unusual and unlikely spaces. The hotel features original works of art in each guest room and rotating art exhibitions in the lobby, restaurant and elevator, highlighting the potential of art to transform everyday places and experiences. In celebration of the special projects and exhibitions, the hotel regularly hosts complimentary art receptions that are free and open to hotel guests and the public.
Porto Vista Hotel aims to engage arts and culture on a global scale with the launch of an international Curatorial and Artist Residency in 2019. The hotel invites international curators and artists to live and work on-site while engaging the local community. Porto Vista Hotel is located at 1835 Columbia Street in San Diego, California.
Artist & Curatorial Residency
The Porto Vista Hotel Residency Program is defined by an emphasis on collaborative research based practices. Intellectual growth is a critical component to the residency. The program focuses on creative and cultural investigations that extend to a larger public audience.
Artists and Curators will present research-led and practice-based projects that promote new perspectives and active learning. Concepts developed within the residency will be exhibited throughout multiple venues in the hotel, including a 6,000 sq ft rooftop and 1,200 sq ft conference room. The Porto Vista Hotel Artist and Curatorial Residency focuses on the importance of the artist and curator as an agent of cultural reflection and progression.
1805 GALLERY
1805 Gallery is an artist studio and exhibition space in Little Italy that encourages critical conversations, creative thinking, community growth and development through exhibitions and artist residencies. In support of a sustainable cultural network, the gallery extends programming to off site locations establishing partnerships with local organizations. 1805 Gallery Director Lauren Siry aims to create opportunities for artists and curators to advance their art practice while producing exciting experiences and events for collectors to acquire meaningful works of art. Siry specializes in private collections, hotel art collections, curating art exhibitions and events for galleries, museums, organizations and hotels. 1805 Gallery is located at 1805 Columbia Street in San Diego, California. Please contact 1805 Gallery Director Lauren Siry for all inquires regarding art programming and available works of art.