João Ferro Martins
condition report

3+1 Arte Contemporânea is pleased to announce the opening of condition report, the latest solo exhibition by the artist João Ferro Martins.

The work of João Ferro Martins crosses multiple disciplines – sculpture, painting, music and performance – which translate into sculptural pieces and installations, as well as two-dimensional works. The legacy of Dadaism is apparent in the use of objets trouvés which the artist transmutes, disarranges and adapts, removing their use as objects, and transforming them into narrative compositions that are just as poetic as they are absurd.

In 2017, the artist inaugurated the exhibition Sottile sfumatura di rumore at the gallery, where he presented an ensemble of installations, sculptures and photographs that invoked, in a sense, the site of a film set, though no clear indication of actual filming was present. In continuation with this cycle, which also includes the exhibition Fermata, at CAPC, Coimbra (2019), this new solo show extends the reflections around the ideas of noise and silence as interpretations of our existence, of death and our impermanence. In condition report, the artist displays the culmination of the last three years of work through sculptures, painting and in the format of a film. A sort of ode to nature, charged with the projection of a chaotic and clamorous future, albeit met with the humour and irony that is so particular to João Ferro Martins’ work.

João Ferro Martins (Santarém, 1979), graduated in Fine Arts at ESAD, Caldas da Rainha. Lives and works in Lisbon. Three-dimensional constructions, production related to painting and relations with the area of sound form the framework of his artistic practice. He also develops various actions that include spoken word, performance and video. His work is concerned with processes where ideas, memories, symptoms and other immaterial aspects find their substance, their particular physical existence, through the manipulation of objects from everyday life and musical culture. Among various solo shows, he has also participated in important collective exhibitions such as: Wait, Berardo Musem, Lisbon (2019); Ciclo Cosmo/Política #2 – Conflito e Unidade, Museum of Neo-Realism, Vila Franca de Xira (2018); Germinal – O Núcleo Cabrita Reis na Coleção de Arte Fundação EDP, MAAT, Lisbon (2018); THEM OR US! Um Projecto de Ficção Científica Social e Política, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto (2017); Artistas comprometidos? Talvez, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2014); Prémio EDP Novos Artistas Fundação EDP, Porto (2013); Visões do Desterro, Caixa Cultural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013); I wish this was a song, Music in Contemporary Art, Nasjonalmuseet, Museet for samtidskunst, Oslo (2012); 7 Artistas ao 10º Mês, F.C.Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2008). Co-creator and interpreter on-stage of: O Declive e a Inclinação and A Morte nos Olhos with Alexandre Pieroni Calado. Producing original sound themes for theatre and film since 2013. Scenography and figurines for the play O limpo e o sujo by Vera Mantero, 2016. Co-founder of the collective A kills B, with Hugo Canoilas, which was present in Nam June Paik Art Center, Seul, 2008; exhibited the project A mata B at F.C.Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2012; and performed at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013. Co-founder, along with André Tasso e Bruno Humberto, of the improv music project, Catarata. Relevant collections: Fundação EDP, Portugal; Figueiredo Ribeiro Collection, Portugal; Bjorn & Gundorph Collection, Denmark; Coleção Nasjonalmuseet, Noway; Marin Gaspar Collection, Portugal