25 Mar 2011

'my body is the rock'n'roll temple' at EMPTY CUBE, Lisbon

The project Francisco Queirós (Lisbon, 1972) has prepared for the forthcoming edition of EMPTY CUBE is located on the boundary of performance and a theatrical act (close to that of the 'marionette porté'), and will be exhibited once, in an unrepeatable event.

'MY BODY IS THE ROCK'N'ROLL TEMPLE' establishes a face-off between two types of languages, the talk-show and the video clip. By consistently choosing to remain aloof of mere commentary and literal representation, Queirós builds a disruptive narrative, given by way of the direction and mise-en-scène, which too questions the architectonic space of the EMPTY CUBE. This project is revelatory of the strategy and tentative manner with which he goes about approaching a universe of images and different shades of our collective imaginary, given by the rhythmic voracity that the images and gleaned texts contain.

In his work, Francisco Queirós constructs meta-narratives where he overlaps fictional magic (at times close to children's tales) and chance incident or stories related to cinema - and sub-genres such as animation, fantasy film and thrillers – or the comic strip. Using different means of production such as drawings, video and installation, he creates ironic and transgressive fabulations where a cruel, bare innocence confronts one with the limits of representation of the body, sexuality and freedom.

After this unique presentation, images and texts will be made available at: www.emptycube.org


Created in 2007, EMPTY CUBE is an independent, not-for-profit initiative. Open to proposals, it has as its objective the presentation of visual arts projects, which respond to a specifically closed, empty and reduced space over the course of an evening.

The spatiotemporal dimension of this project is crucial in that it not only conditions the artist's production, but the articulation between the work of art, its presence in space and its relationship to the viewer, who sees the work during the course of a one-time only, nightly presentation of four to five hours. EMPTY CUBE may eventually be held in other sites or locations deemed of interest to its continuity.

Attentive to its nomadic calling, as of March 2009, Empty Cube has been taking place at Appleton Square - Rua Acácio Paiva, 27 R/c, 1700-004, Lisbon.