Current Projects
Here's some of my most recent and on-going work and projects.
01. ARTECH Fest* - Eyebeam Brasil 2015
Festival Director and Producer
The festival offers a rare look into current innovations in media arts, while celebrating the organization’s preeminence in research and the development of new works and technological platforms. The ARTECH Fest* will provide the public in São Paulo, Brazil an opportunity to engage directly with the artists and creative technologists working at Eyebeam through a series of moderated conversations, site specific installations, public interventions, exhibition and other forms of forward-thinking programs throughout the city of Sao Paulo, 2015.
This project aims to initiate and explore the future of cities while establishing a new type of platform for the public, institutions, organizations, and communities who comprise the fabric of urban environments, to interact in an open forum of ideas and solutions to make for better places to live, work, and create. In the age of big data and new capacities for technology to solve urban problems, it is becoming more crucial to establish new methods and practices for interacting with technology in a critical and creative means.
02. Endless Soul - Documentary
Director and Producer
Endless Soul started as a short documentary project about Dom Salvador the seminal brazilian composer and pianist in February 2013. Upon reading an article written by Alan Thayer at Waxpoetics magazine we decided to meet with Salvador at his house in Port Washignton.
After spending time listening to many rare recordings with the artist, we realized the potential for this project to grow and we’re now shooting more of Salvador love of music, his busy life in New York as a pianist aiming a feature film length.The short film is already creating a buzz in the Festival circuit, it was first seen in São Paulo during the In-Edit Festival and it has been invited to participate at many film festivals and exhibits in Brazil, US (NYU, Columbia University and Lincoln Center) and Europe.
03. Ocupação Skate - São Paulo
Event Director and Producer
Reunindo a organização Pixel Playground e também membros da comunidade do skate brasileiro o projeto Ocupação Skate 2015 pretende possibitar a jovens o acesso ao aprendizado de técnicas de criação de conteúdo e mídia digital, abrindo uma primeira porta a um possível profissionalização e criando uma rede de contatos para que os jovens continuem conectados aos colegas, instrutores e mentores durante um importante período formativo de suas vidas. Durante a "ocupação" os estudantes participantes desenvolvem vídeos de skate, documentários sobre suas próprias expêriencias e comunidades ultilizando o video, a fotografia e as artes gráficas e aprendendo a divulgar seu trabalho e sua estórias através de blogs e web sites. Durantes o projeto os participantes serão responsáveis por ultilizar o espaço de maneira coletiva, consciênte e organizada, servindo como curadores e mediadores do espaço cultural além de organizarem palestras e encontros para visitantes onde artistas, jornalistas, escritores e profissionais do esporte serão convidados a dividir suas experiências, conhecimento e aventuras com os alunos, visitantes e a comunidade local.
04. King Dumbo - Dumbo Arts Festival 2012
Artist
King Dumbo is site specific sculpture made of discarded plastic bottles and bags, assembled together by duct tape in the shape of a giant gorilla (approximately 15 Feet=4.572 Meters).The project is a take on the famous fictional character King Kong, the giant movie monster who hardly lacks in possibility for wider socio-political applicability. Like the 1933 movie, King Dumbo is a piece for our troubled times, a clear crystallization of many lurking social anxieties in our Recession-era America.
05. Fuzz Bananas - Exploring Brazilian Psychedelia
A documentary film that follows record store owner, producer and vinyl archaeologist Joel Stones as he explores uncharted territories of psychedelic Brazilian music. Following the success of his sold-out compilation Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas, Joel travels to Brazil in search of visionary and chaotic artists that have been overlooked by mainstream culture. Sonic rarities remind us of the great expanse of music history, with unique stories hovering behind every song. Armed with a wild afro, a box of 45s and an infectious personality, Joel pulls these secret histories through the cracks of Brazilian music. Brazilian Guitar Fuzz Bananas – The Movie contains stories of people known and unknown, brought to life in shocking technicolor sound!
statement
My work is an attempt to recreate or capture my restless illusion with materials, format, skills and tools, in an effort to encapsulate my elusive desires. These works often question what my selective memory chooses to remember. Subsequently I’ve used the same matter and materials again and again. Over time, those materials become possessed in a way—like a ghost possessing magnetic tape or an object.
I often use circles for exactly this reason, as holding patterns—ways of shaping thoughts, creating taxonomies of things that temporarily hold against loss.
Most of my work is character and narrative driven, cinema and filmmaking play a very important component of my approach to Art making. I use every available materials to create this characters and stories: photography, film, video, plastic, watercolor, clay, paper, duct tape and food.
I think there’s always been an inherent violence in my work, or at least a vulnerability that infers a kind of violence. I grew up in Brazil, it’s a tropical wonderland, beautiful and fertile, but there’s also a down-and-out violence to it. Maybe it’s the heat that drives up the crime rate. I have so much junk, so much history, that sometimes I just want a can of petrol and a match, so I can start something new.
I also work as an independent director, editor and producer of documentaries, music videos and commercials for 10 years and as editor and 2D/3D animator for advertising and TV.
