João Maria Gusmão & Pedro Paiva

According to an introductory text to their work, the work of João Maria Gusmão (1979) and Pedro Paiva (1977) has the “intellectual reference point of Alfred Jarry’s pataphysics, the intuitive method of Henri Bergson, the reversal of Nietzschean nihilism and the ontological and political adventure of Alain Badiou.” Their work poses various aesthetic and philosophical questions through short 16 mm films from which the artists also extract stills. Their works ironically examine paranormal natural or human phenomena and satirically show a whole series of “moments of truth”, which was the expression used by the philosopher Alain Badiou for historically important moments for certain empirical research projects. The joint work of Gusmão and Paiva is thus a surprisingly humorous and intuitive approach to the wonders and absurdities of this world.