Isabel Cordeiro, Made of matter, formed by motion
Residency: 10 July - 11 September 2024
Meet & Greet: Thu 18 July, 15:00-17:00
Where is my foot? - public hanging session: 8 August, 15:00-17:00 (reservations)
Performance event: Friday 6 September, 16:00-22:00
· First performance 17:00
· Second performance 20:30
· With drinks and music
For her project Made of matter, formed by motion at Hotel Maria Kapel, artist Isabel Cordeiro develops a durational movement piece that reflects on how we are permanently subjected to the gravitational pull that ties us to each other as material bodies and as individuals, in this world. This force helps shape our bodies into a human-like form, which is in a perpetual state of movement and becoming. Isabel’s project plays with gravity and buoyancy – by working in the air and in water – creating the conditions for us to experience and understand our bodies in different ways, and allowing us to forge new relationships with each other, our surroundings, and our times.
Made of matter, formed by motion takes inspiration from 17th-century philosopher Margeret Cavendish’s observation of the natural world. According to her, nature perpetually creates all things out of itself, “for of matter they are made, and by motion, they are formed into several and particular figures”. When bodies encounter other bodies, they exchange both motion and substance while changing shape. In this way, according to Cavendish, the movement of matter creates everything and connects all beings.
Isabel will work together with two other bodies on a movement piece, for which they are suspended high up in the centuries-old chapel. Here, they will hold blocks of ice made of water from the nearby Markermeer, that slowly melt over the duration and run down the bodies, becoming one in mutual transformation. The piece is accompanied by a sound bath based on frequencies that affect the body organs, which heightens the awareness of the relationship of our bodies to our changing, moving times.
Isabel Cordeiro (1973, Lisbon) is an Amsterdam-based artist, curator, and teacher at various Dutch art academies. She holds an MA in Fine Arts from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and a degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon. Her works have been shown internationally at, amongst others, Julidans, Amsterdam (2024), Klemm’s Gallery, Berlin (2023), at7, Amsterdam (2019), Bradwolff Projects, Amsterdam (2017), Glasgow Sculpture Studios (2016), Halle 14, Leipzig (2014), Das Weisse Haus, Vienna (2010), Jorge Shirley Gallery, Lisbon (2012), Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag (2008).
Team
Movement: Isabel Cordeiro, Catarina Ferreira da Silva, Marjolein Vogels, Eleni Palogou
Sound: Marcus Bruystens
Rigging: Roan Lo-a-Njoe
Photography
Bart Treuren