THEY THE THEM ARE WE
THEY THE THEM ARE WE (TTTAW) is a Nástio Mosquito project. The intrinsic nature of the project is to collect and document, share, and edify multiple1 views. TTTAW does this in ways that are informative, reflective, and creative.
Currently, TTTAW’s vehicles are a series of podcasts, a filmic experience2, a reading session, a set of listening stations, and two thousand square meters of land in Portugal.
Ultimately, TTTAW stands on the premise that before one asks effectively oneself or others, “What Will We Do?” or “Where Are We Going?” one must know “What Are WE, TODAY, as human3 communities?
TTTAW departs from an insightful4 perspective, a sense of ‘health’, ‘mental capacity’ and ‘emotional reality’ that life and work happen in, a realm often overlooked when we talk about concepts, ideas, and political positions. It is an effort to lay bare how behind these things, there is always a human being5. TTTAW pursues what this landscape of the ‘WE’ is going to be: the political ‘WE’, the financial ‘WE’, and the cultural ‘We’, as we all enter new ways of interacting with one another.
It’s our profound conviction6 that confusion is one of the most efficient tools used by systemic structures of moral, political, and financial/economic abuse of societal power.
NO.ONE.GIVES.A.MOSQUITO’S.ASS.
.ABOUT.TRABALHO.DE.PRETO
From the word “mosquito” the artist embarked on an autobiographical research that explores common perceptions about the insect with which he shares the surname, identifying its most harmful assessments and impacts as: “they are not a European concern”.
Mosquito’s universe takes the form of performances, installations, podcasts, exhibitions or any other multisensory experience that supports the “political exploration of our dreams” and his research on what people really care about. Promote opportunities “to come together” and the “understanding of our interdependent capacities”, define Mosquito’s priorities in what he describes as the “need for care”, also expressed in the manifesto that he now expands to Lisbon: “There’s no way for you to commit to what you care about, and not impact the world. Let’s impact the world by caring”.
WANDERER SONGS
Born from an invitation to a diverse group of contemporary artists, Cantares do Andarilho, internationally known as Wanderer Songs, is a project that reinterprets the musical repertoire of José Afonso. It is inspired by the musician’s historic concert at the Lisbon Coliseum in January 1983.
Drawing on the original setlist of that performance, and rooted both in tradition and in José Afonso‘s spirit of musical innovation, Wanderer Songs / Cantares do Andarilho brings a contemporary sense of elegance through the audiovisual work of Nástio Mosquito and Vic Pereiró, offering a twenty-first-century artistic tribute to José Afonso.
KING OF KLOWNS – M HKA EXHIBITION
King of Klowns, Nástio Mosquito’s first major overview exhibition at Muhka took us on a journey of invention, in which we were confronted by personalities demanding that we learn to navigate a complex world.
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Characterised by its non-conformity, Mosquito’s artworks often toy with ‘correct’ modes of cultural representation, conventions of language, and rhetoric of the media. With the artist himself embodying each new character, we are constantly perplexed by who is the real Nástio Mosquito – at any one moment, he is the preacher, the politician or the joker, or any combination thereof. In an era where the artistic sphere habitually defines artists by their identities, Mosquito’s proposition can for this reason be considered something altogether different. Unrestrained in his portrayal and invention, his art cuts through today’s situation of increasing cultural restraint, and points towards the clarity of a liberated view upon art, expression and society.
King of Klowns is Mosquito’s first major museum overview exhibition, and will consider the evolution of his practice, as well as his transgressions into, and out of, art. It will present key artworks from the formative period of his practice in the early 2000s through to today, including his excursions into performance, literature and music, as well as his collaborative endeavours. Taking us along a specially conceived journey, the exhibition will also include new reflections by the artist on his career through substantial new productions. King of Klowns will immerse visitors in Mosquito’s realm of complex characters, in turn demanding of us that we learn to navigate a complex world.
