VVORK

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»Gravity«, 2007 by Aleksandra Mir. The 20m high rocket was built out of junk and had smoke coming out of its windows. It stood in the Roundhouse, London, a former industrial train turning station that has since become a permanent performance space. The materials took five months to source from various scrap yards in England. Most of it is steel or fiberglass, plus a few tractor tires and several industrial fans, and the bottom part is a discarded tank from a toothpaste factory. Video.




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»Believe« (Levitation in the Studio) 2002 and »Untitled« (Vulture in the Studio) 2002 are two of three videos taking place in João Onofre’s Lisbon studio. »Believe« pits the eternal power of magic against technology by inviting a traditional magician couple to perform a levitation in the artist’s studio. In (Vulture in the Studio) the wild animal climbs onto the tables mounted on easels that enclose the studio space, nibbling on the sheets of paper pinned to the wall as well as the books and catalogues arranged on shelves, and tries to take flight.

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In the third video »Catriona Shaw sings “Baldessari sings Lewitt” re-edit, “Like a Virgin”« 2003, a passable vocalist interprets Madonna’s famous song Like a Virgin, but with altered lyrics: excerpts from Sol Le Witt’s “Sentences on Conceptual Art” 1969, which had already been sung by John Baldessari in 1978. Accompanying the video is an extended version original video soundtrack was released. Vinyl record, edition of 20 pieces.

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»Instrumental Version« 2001, features the Chamber Choir of Lisbon, performing an acappella version of “The Robots,” an old electronic favorite from Kraftwerk’s 1978 album Man Machine. Vinyl record, edition of 20 pieces. All works by João Onofre.




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Gravitation Zero is a theatre performance staged in a weightless space on board of a parabolic airplane. Russian scientists use parabolic planes in order to train astronauts, since the plane enables one to experience a gravitational vacuum inside its body. In order to create zero gravity conditions, it’s necessary for the aircraft to fly in a parabolic arc not dissimilar to the trajectory a rocket makes as it escapes Earth gravity. On December 15. 1999, a massive high-winged Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which normally serves as a training plane for the Russian cosmonauts, took off from the Star City airfield with a cargo of fourteen actors and spectators, and about the same number of Russian trainers and crew members. At the back end of the plane an intricately designed set had been constructed-one component of what director Dragan Živadinov calls an “inhabited sculpture”.




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Zero Genie by Ansuman Biswas and Jem Finer.