Elisabetta Benassi Io vivere vorrei addormentato entro il dolce rumore della vita [I would like to live asleep within the sweet noise of life], 2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Aurélia de Souza Estudo para o autorretrato Santo António, s.d.
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Julie Béna Miles, 2021
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Laura Lamiel Un chant d'amour, 2019–2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Mary Beth Edelson Sem título | Untitled, 1973–Present
© Jorge das Neves Círculo Sede
Meris Angioletti Onirocritica #4 – Seeing in the Dark, 2021
© Jorge das Neves Círculo Sede
Ru Kim Olho, Nariz, Boca, Ouvido, Testa, Queixo, Maçã do Rosto, Sobrancelha | Eye, Nose, Mouth, Ear, Forehead, Chin, Cheekbone, Eyebrow, 2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz Oriana, 2021–2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Gabriel Chaile Smoke comes out of his nose like a pot boiling on the fire. Job 41:20, 2020
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Lygia Pape Ttéia 1B (redonda), 1976–2000
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Jesse Darling Sem título | Untitled, 2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Jessica Warboys This Tail Grows Among Ruins, 2022
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nova
Laura Huertas Millán Journey to a Land Otherwise Known, 2011
© Jorge das Neves Mosteiro Santa Clara-a-Nov

The Joanine Library — a pearl of the Baroque and a treasure of the University of Coimbra — was built as an imperialist gesture that aimed to encapsulate knowledge and flaunt colonial dominion. This fortress of knowledge (and power) is also the refuge of a small colony of bats that found there the ideal conditions to set up house. Under the cover of the nightly silence, the bats prey on the insects and larvae that would otherwise munch through the library’s 55,000 books. The night is their time of freedom, the moment when they come out of their hiding places and start working on the conservation of our shared estate. For us, the fact that there are bats living in the Joanine Library was a spark that triggered a cascade of thoughts. We hope that they can offer the same inspiration for everyone that visits the Biennial.

In our critical idealization of Meia-noite, we imagine the night as a fluid space, a space for breaking norms, open to other visions, knowledges, interactions, and bodies. We envision it as a space of resistance and freedom, a political, metaphysical and experiential place. Here, the night is a territory for symbiotic relationships between humans and other beings, a place for co-dependency and co-evolution. In this perspective, the night fascinates us with its plural capacity to “transvalue” universal normative categories.

The university is, pre-eminently, a place of knowledge and power. If libraries are the epitome of (a certain protected kind of) knowledge, and bats the embodiment of darkness, here we find them in a relationship of mutual dependence. Both the library and the bat become political subjects. A central idea of our research for Meia-noite was how to question the production of knowledge embodied by the Joanine Library. How can we propose alternative epistemologies? How can we learn from the intelligence of bats? How can we imagine other forms of interaction?

Our intention was to free ourselves from the narratives and normative dualism of modern thought that fracture our contemporary society and produce an imbrication of discriminations: racism, classism, sexism, ageism, ableism, to name just a few. With this in mind, we applied methodologies that help us to experiment with creative, unexpected and marginal modes of knowledge production. We placed the eyeglasses of these Coimbra bats over our feminist ones and invited a group of artists to share their artistic and critical tools with us. Tools that multiply and connect worlds, that come from some existing place after the patriarchy: tools of the future.

Inspired by the night, this proposal for the Biennial is an attempt to open a speculative fissure, one that does not propose any answers, but raises many questions. It is an attempt to invent other modes of existence, of relating, of being and living together.

Elfi Turpin & Filipa Oliveira

Program

Activation (24)
Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday
Converging (34)
Opening hours: See event page

Artists

Meia Noite

Av. Inês de CastroPaço dasEscolasJardim da SereiaR. Ferreira BorgesParque VerdeJardimBotânicoTerreiroda Erva

About

Anozero–Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art is an initiative of the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra. It is organized in conjunction with the Coimbra City Council and the University of Coimbra and was first presented in 2015. Its prime goal is to foster reflection around the circumstances that led to the University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia being classified by UNESCO as World Heritage.

Team

Organization
CAPC – Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra
Câmara Municipal de Coimbra
Universidade de Coimbra

Curated by
Elfi Turpin & Filipa Oliveira

Director
Carlos Antunes

Assistant director
Désirée Pedro

Financial management
Rafael Vaz André | Abilis

Communication
Sílvia Escórcio | CUCO

Production coordination
Lisiane Mutti
Nelson Ricardo Martins

Executive production
Daniel Matos Madeira
Mafalda Ruão

Production assistance
Ivone Antunes

UC Production
Teresa Baptista

CMC Production
Isabel Gaspar

Editorial coordination
Carina Correia

Proofreading
Carina Correia
José Roseira

Translation
José Roseira
Rui Cascais Parada
Alliance Française
Magali van der Monde

Photography
Jorge das Neves

Educational, activation, convergent program coordination
Jorge Cabrera

Musical programming
José Miguel Pereira

Graphic Design - Art Direction
Charles Mazé & Coline Sunier

Graphic design assistance
Alexandra Oliveira

Web development
Divisa.

Architecture
Atelier do Corvo

Installation coordinator
Jorge das Neves

Installation
Andre Alexandrino
Edgar Massul
Felipe Barbosa
Jorge Simões | T.art
Gabriel Cheganças
Balaklava Noir
João Nora
Marco Graça
Pedro Alves | T.art
Rubene Ramos
Tiago Carnide
Xavier Ovídio

Electrical installation
Idálio Marques | LUZTEC

Electrical and water works
Oleksandr Sknarin | LUZTEC
Anjel Tochev | LUZTEC

Metalwork and Structures
João Bento | Metalmiro
Luís Francisco | Metalmiro

Building and maintenance
Carlos Delgado | Odraude
Carlos Rainho | MMS Construções
David Rodrigues | Odraude
João Lucas | MMS Construções
José Catarino | JC Construções
Lúcio Soares | JC Construções
Manuel Marçal Salgado | MMS Construções

Carpentry
Anthony Alexandre
Móveis e Carpintaria Júlio Pinto

Programme support
Casa das Caldeiras
CAPC
Colégio das Artes
DARQ
Jardim Botânico
JACC

Coordination of volunteers
Lisiane Mutti

Coordination of mediators
Diana Santos

Legal advice
FGRS Advogados (Fernando Reis Godinho e Rui Miguel Simões)

Mediators
Ana Luísa Nogueira
Ana Marcella de Carvalho
Diana Santos
Hamilton Francisco
Joana Neves Ferreira
Joana Oliveira
João Archer de Carvalho
Manuela da Paz Oliveira
Nuno Tavares Marques
Pedro Flausino Mafra Vaz

Safety
COPS – Companhia Operacional de Segurança

Cleaning
Lúcia Lima – Serviço de Limpeza e Desinfecção de Coimbra

Driver
Pedro Costa

Maintenance and technical support
Marco Graça

Volunteers

Anozero’21–22 is grateful to all the volunteers who gave their time and goodwill to embrace this project.

Ana João Chaves Pires
Ana Caetano
Ana Meirelles Moutinho
Ana Paula Calmeiro
Beatriz Maçarico
Carolina França
Carolina Rodrigues
Daniela Carregado
Emily Romero
Francisco Monteiro
Gabriela Nogueira
Gonçalo Almeida
Hanna Coelho
Isabel Ferraz Branco
Joana Videira
João Jesus
José Antunes
Júlia Cordeiro
Lidia Maria Labianca
Lara Castro
Laura Vieira
Lúcia Lopes dos Santos
Lumena Quaresma
Madalena Bindzi
Mafalda Centeio
Maria Miranda
Maria Teresa Amaral
Nadine Benevides
Renan Alves de Souza
Rita Simões
Rute Souto
Samira Alves
Sofia Narciso
Sónia Freitas
Tomé Antunes
Victoria Lacerda