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Alexandre Estrela

Lisbon, Portugal. 1971
Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA, 2024. 
Still from the video by Oresti Tsonopoulos.

Forgotten Sounds of Tomorrow, 2003 - 2021

Exhibition view of Forgotten Sounds of Tomorrow, Bruno Murias, Lisbon.
2022. Photo: Bruno Lopes

Magnetic Field Prepared for Video, 2003 - 21

Exhibition view of Forgotten Sounds of Tomorrow, Bruno Murias, Lisbon.
2022. Photo: Bruno Lope

Ruin Marble, 2021

Exhibition view of A Third Reason, Rialto6, Lisbon. 2021.
Photo: Vasco Stocker de Vilhena

A Third Reason, 2021

Exhibition view of A Third Reason, Rialto6, Lisbon. 2021.
Photo: Vasco Stocker de Vilhen

A Third Reason, 2021

Exhibition view of A Third Reason, Rialto6, Lisbon. 2021.
Photo: Vasco Stocker de Vilhen

Redskyfalls, 2019

Exhibition view of All and Everything, Museo Tamayo, CDMX. 2021.
Photo: Enrique Macías Martínez

Stargate, 2002

Exhibition view of All and Everything, Museo Tamayo, CDMX. 2021.
Photo: Enrique Macías Martínez

The Golden Record (All and Everything) , 2017

Exhibition view of All and Everything, Museo Tamayo, CDMX. 2021.
Photo: Enrique Macías Martínez

View of Mire d’essai de fixité

Commissioned by Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 2019.
Photo: Bruno Lopes.

View of Mire d’essai de fixité

Commissioned by Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 2019.
Photo: Bruno Lopes.

Universal Score, 2019

Exhibition view of Um Mês Acordado, Indipendenza, Rome. 2019.
Photo: Luis Rosario.

Um Mês Acordado, 2018

Exhibition view of Um Mês Acordado, Indipendenza, Rome. 2019.
Photo: Luis Rosario.

Van Allen Belt, 2019

Exhibition view of Um Mês Acordado, Indipendenza, Rome. 2019.
Photo: Luis Rosario.

Águas de Março, 2019

Exhibition view of Volta Grande, Pivô, Edifício Copan, São Paulo, Brazil, CDMX. 2019.
Photo: Everton Ballardin

A Cadeira de H.M., 2019

Exhibition view of Volta Grande, Pivô, Edifício Copan, São Paulo, Brazil,
CDMX. 2019.
Photo: Everton Ballardin

Ecos da Figura Interna, 2019

Exhibition view of Volta Grande, Pivô, São Paulo. 2019.
Photo: Everton Ballardin.

Pockets of Silence (Part I), 2015

Exhibition view of Pockets of Silence, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. 2015.

Pockets of Silence (Part I), 2015

Exhibition view of Pockets of Silence, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. 2015.

Pockets of Silence (Part II), 2015

Exhibition view of Pockets of Silence, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. 2015.

Vida y costumbres de Alexandre, 2015

Exhibition view of Pockets of Silence, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. 2015.

L’ours (OFF), 2013

Exhibition view of Meio Concreto, Museu Serralves, Porto. 2013. Photo: André Cepeda.

L’ours (ON), 2013

Exhibition view of Meio Concreto, Museu Serralves, Porto. 2013.
Photo: André Cepeda.

Alexandre Estrela’s work is an investigation on the essence of images that expands spatially and temporally through different supports. In his videos and installations, Estrela examines the subject’s psychological reactions to images in their interaction with matter. Each piece has several layers to which we are initiated step by step. The works are not just there to be watched, but rather to be unfolded. Each piece convokes synesthetic experiences, visual and sound illusions, aural and chromatic sensations that function as perceptive traps, leading the subject toward conceptual levels. With this strategy Estrela is constantly problematizing the elements that constitute the act of perceiving, splitting vision into further sensible dimensions towards the unseen and the unheard.  

His solo show Studio Now, curated by Sophie Cavoulacos and part of the Program for the Kravis Studio, will be on view at MoMA, New York, 2023. In 2024 he will be presenting an exhibition at  Culturgest in Lisbon, curated by Bruno Marchand. 

Further selected solo exhibitions include A Third Reason, Rialto6, Lisbon, 2022; Forgotten Sounds of Tomorrow, Galeria Bruno Murías, Lisbon, 2022; Día Eléctrico (with João Maria Gusmão) at Travesía Cuatro CDMX, 2021; All and Everything, Rufino Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, 2020; Um Mês Acordado, curated by Gerard Faggionato at Indipendenza, Rome, 2019; All and Everything, Den Frie, Copenhagen, 2019;  Volta Grande, curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas at Pivô, 2019, São Paulo; Métal Hurlant, curated by Sérgio Mah at Fondation Gulbenkian, Paris, 2019;  Lua Cão (with João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva), a project initiated in 2017 by Galeria Zé Dos Bois in Lisbon, that traveled to the Kunstverein München, and concluded at La Casa Encendida in Madrid in January 2019; Knife in the Water, 2018, at Travesía Cuatro, Madrid; Ouro Mouro, 2018, at the Quetzal Art Centre, Vidigueira, Portugal; Baklite, 2017, at CAV Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra, Portugal; Cápsulas de silencio, 2016, within the Fisuras Program, at the Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid; Roda Lume, 2016, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp, M HKA, Belgium; Meio Concreto, 2013, at Museu Serralves in Porto, Portugal; Um homem entre quatro paredes, 2013, at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil; The Sunspot Circle, 2013, at The Flat Time House, London, United Kingdom, among others. 

The artist has also participated in numerous group shows in institutions and biennales such as: Points de rencontres, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2019; Anozero – Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra, 2017, curated by Luíza Teixeira da Freitas; L’exposition d’un Rêve, 2017, at Gulbenkian Foundation Paris, ACMI Melbourne and TATE Modern, a project by Mathieu Copeland; Hallucinations, Documenta 14, 2017, Athens, a festival curated by Ben Russel, etc. 

His work is included in the following international collections: Fundación Museo de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain); Colección Inelcom (Spain); Museo Rufino Tamayo (Mexico); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal); Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea — Museu do Chiado (Portugal); Fundação Telecom (Portugal); Fundação Serralves (Portugal); António Cachola Collection (Portugal); MAAT — Museum of Art Technology and Architecture (Portugal); Taguchi Art Collection (Japan), Fundación CALOSA, Irapuato, Guanajuato, (Mexico); Collection Centre Pompidou (France); Coleçao Teixeira de Freitas (Portugal); Collection du Frac Bretagne (France); Collection of Maria João and Armando Cabral (Portugal), among others 

Entre 2007 y 2020, Alexandre Estrela fue director de Oporto, un espacio artístico sin ánimo de lucro en Lisboa. En la actualidad, Oporto se llama FarO y funciona en un teatro que parasita los muros exteriores de una iglesia. Programado junto con Ana Baliza.  

The Golden Record (All and Everything)

2017. 4/3 Full HD video, projected on half sphere, stereo sound.

Aquario

2010. Video projection, Plexiglass screen, paper, colour, stereo sound Music: Alvin Lucier, Barbecue Grill

Lua Cão

2018. With João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva. Kunstverein. Munich. Germany.

Meio Concreto

2013. Serralves Musem. Porto. Portugal.

Meio Concreto

2013. Serralves Musem. Porto. Portugal.

Roda Lume

2016. M HKA. Antwerp. Brussels

Le Moiré

2010. Video projection, DVD (PAL), glass screen, colour, mono sound, loop.

O Som No Ar, 2010, Plexiglass, paper, HD projector, mono sound
Meio Concreto

2013. Serralves Musem. Porto. Portugal.

Flauta

2010. Full HD anaglyphic video projection, colour, mono sound, loop, wooden structure.

Lua Cão

2018. With João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva. Kunstverein, Munich. Germany.

Solar Watch

2006, Video projection on aluminium sculpture, s/ som.

Vidro Duplo

2018, Glass, transducer, HD projector, media player.

Knife in the water

2018. Travesia Cuatro. Madrid. Spain.

Ikebana

Film. Variable dimensions.

I to Infinity

2006. Single channel video projection on screen, DVD (PAL), color, silent, endless.