Pamela Breda
Conférence de l'artiste en résidence à La Box
Pamela Breda is an artist and researcher living in London. She was appointed artist in residency at several
international art institutions, including Pratt Institute (USA), Cite Internationale Des Arts (Paris, F) Botin
Foundation (Santander, E) and VIR, ViaFarini in Residence (Milan, IT). Her films have been screened
internationally among others at “ECRA Film Festival” (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), “Revolutions Per Minute
Festival” (Boston, USA), “Digital Film Library”, Clermont- Ferrand Film Festival (Clermont-Ferrand, F), “Hazel Eye Film Festival” (Tennesse, USA), “The Bomb Art Factory Film Festival” (London, UK), Sohonya Art Center (Bangalore, I).
In the past ten years my area of research has focused on topics such as: cultural visual tropes and
traditions, the contingency of the artistic process and its multiple outcomes, the appropriation of artworks
and the delegation of authorship, the impact of digital imagery on our way of seeing and making images,
the evocation of an absent or dematerialised body, the concepts of duration and dormancy, memetics and
the generative processes of memory (as personal and collective history).
My theoretical references include, but are not limited to, Jacques Didi-Huberman, Jaques Rancière and Hito Steyerl, for their exploration of the relationship between visual documents, truth, plausibility and fiction, and questioning the processes of knowledge formation at the basis of contemporary culture and social schemata, as well as the communication of narratives through new media and web resources.
The Quintessence is a visual and cultural research project - currently in a work in progress phase - which
aims to promote a new perspective on the scientific world, exploring the production of scientific knowledge through video, sound recording, photography and site-specific installations in some advanced research centers in Europe and the USA.
The title refers to the classic physical description of the universe, which included the presence of a fifth
essence or fifth element (in addition to water, air, fire and earth), mysterious but omnipresent, which holds
all the others together. In particular, the research aims to explore the spaces and laboratories studying the
fundamental laws of the universe, from the microcosm of quantum physics to the macrocosm of the
multiverse. These are research centers where knowledge is developed at scales and distances beyond
human perception.
During the workshop with students, the artis will organize a series of discussion seminars in order to analyze the concept of creative thought and imaginary in relation to their application to scientific visual discoveries. Together with the student, we will consider how the space beyond Earth can be imagined, how we project our human ideas, fears and desires into the vast cosmos. Together we will explore the sky and the students will be invited to express their creativity through creative procecess such as writing, painting, collages and others.
