30 Aug 2016

Ulla, Ulla, Ulla, Ulla! Martians, Aliens, Intergalactics and Humans

Ulla, Ulla, Ulla, Ulla! Martians, Aliens, Intergalactics and Humans.

Curator: Jane de Almeida

Artists: David Medalla, Fernando Duval, Henrique Alvim Corrêa, Kiluanji Kia Henda and Olaf Breuning.

Ulla Ulla is the sound of the Martian ships of H. G. Wells. A hundred years ago the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov in his manifesto 'The trumpet of Martians' makes a call through Ulla Ulla to think about art and invention. Years later, the Russian intellectual Viktor Shiklovsky makes again use of the Ulla, Ulla calling for aliens who literally would 'alienate' humans. These manifestos and calls are part of futuristic proposals and historical contexts of socialist utopias of the Soviets.

In this exhibition, Ulla Ulla! is also a call for works and artists with 'alien' inspiration. Through the deafening sound of the ships, the exhibition is constructed as a space to think about the cliché images of science, new utopias, sensorial strangeness and mixed messages that are being transmitted to our planet. The invited artists have special contacts with the cosmos. Some dare figuratively decode unknown space beings, other reverse and change the scientific images. Some presents themselves with the a very alien form. Others elaborate Utopias for the XXI century.

The special guest of the exhibition is the Brazilian artist Henrique Alvim Corrêa (1876-1910), creator of the Martians who populated the twentieth century. Alvim Correa illustrated, for a special edition of the War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells's book in 1906, producing beings and machines that impressed Wells himself and influenced the Martians of the 2006 Steven Spielberg´s movie. The silver ships with dark aspects in prints made with pen and ink with Martians designed in a counter-plongée angle expands its scales of grandeur and terror. His original prints that led to the 1906 edition are in private collections abroad and five of them will be showed in this exhibition, in addition to an original oil painting.

Inspired by the 1916 manifesto of the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov, we invite everyone to the intergalactic parliament, voting is advisory.

Agenda item: Ulla Ulla, Martians!

Meetings: 'Utopias and escapisms of the XXI Century. Or how to decode what the political class wants to tell us.'

Thanks to: The Artists, Filomena Soares Gallery, Ana Maria B. M. Jordão and Cicero Inacio da Silva.