ZDB / GALERIA ZÉ DOS BOIS - LISBON



Contact

Name of the responsible structure: zdb
Type of structure :non for profit association/NGO
Profile of the initiators of the project: artists collective
Continent : Europe
Country : Portugal
Address: zdb - galeria zé dos bois
rua da barroca 59
Bairro Alto
1200 - Lisboa
Tel : + 351 213430205
Mail : zdb@zedosbois.org
Website : www.zedosbois.org
Contact : Natxo Checa (Director)



Description

- zdb project
zdb has made a place for itself as a promoter of a series of different activities that have in common the assertion of emerging art in face of institutionalised proposals. As a creation, production and promotion structure of emerging art, zdb presents its own projects, and at the same time functions as a space of programming, producing and confrontation of proposals that are a long way away of institutional circuits.

Born in 1994, zdb has affirmed itself as a privileged space for confrontation, experimentation and promotion of emerging proposals that deal with contemporary aesthetics and technologies.

- zdb history
zdb started in 1994 as a non-profit association. During the 8 years of its existence, it has occupied abandoned buildings in strategic places of the city: Bairro Alto, Chiado and Cais do Sodré, developing its projects, and promoting the buildings’ precarious recuperation, favouring their conservation and therefore having a special relation with the space.

zdb’s itinerary spirit derives from a nomadic, improvised and precarious way of working, but at the same time it provides total freedom in the creation of the works that deal with space in a decisive way, giving therefore a healthy dynamic to the work proposed.

At the moment, zdb occupies a space temporarily on loan by the Social Security regional centre, in Bairro Alto, R. Barroca, 59 and Tercenas space, an old building in Bairro de Santos, Travessa de José Antà³nio Pereira, 19/23 for experimental and laboratorial works in contemporary visual arts.

Former use : At the moment, zdb occupies a space temporarily on loan by the Social Security regional centre, in Bairro Alto, R. Barroca, 59 and Tercenas space, an old building in Bairro de Santos, Travessa de José Antà³nio Pereira, 19/23 for experimental and laboratorial works in contemporary visual arts.
Location : city centre
Foundation year of the centre : 1996.
Type of occupation : loan
Owner of the building : Social Security regional centre


Social and artistic disciplines

- functioning
zdb is a creation, programming, confrontational and experimental structure, run by a group of people, which we can divide in the following areas:

- exhibitions
Programming of visual art and new artistic languages exhibitions, on a regular basis, that don’t have a place in the institutional circuit and not even in the commercial art galleries circuit, developed essentially in the shape of the site specific, a dialogue with the occupied space.

- zdbmà¼zique
Programming of experimental, improvised, electronic music concerts on a regular basis. Alternative programs to the big auditoriums and theatres. A privileged space of confrontation and fruition of new musical propositions.

- festival atlântico
Artistic direction and production of the Atlantic Festival - international show, art biennial, performance, technology that gathers artists, thinkers, and scientists on a common subject.

- flirt
Publishing of flirt, art and culture magazine, bi-monthly, bilingual, with a free distribution and on-line edition. Flirt has been edited by flirt association since the beginning of 2002.

- performance, theatre, dance
Programming, support to production and promotion, of multidisciplinary shows. Space of experimentation of developing works that have a less conventional setting when it comes to the public, contrary to more traditional theatres.

- Zdvision/ supa8
Exploration of formats, apparently, of discontinuous use and/or amateur, and of new possibilities in using those formats.
Film sessions outside of the commercial circuit. Experimental, animation, documentary film, video art. Formats: s8, 16mm, video...

- Tercenas
Artistic residencies for collective and annual projects plus three presentations to the public. Artists’ projects development. Evolvable occupation of a physic structure. Started January 2001. It is now taking place the second occupation.

- Zdac (under construction)
Documentation Center for the Contemporary Arts. Compilation of national and international audio-visual documents from the 90’s carried out by the different projects at zdb. Also maintains catalogues and books from other Centres of Contemporary Art.

- zdb actions
Zé dos Bois is a network of interchange, developing interventions based on co-authorship. This self-replicating network is open to the different sensibilities that are part of it. Motivations range from civic awareness, to the price of a Portuguese table wine. As expected, the interventions are made for the specific space. The public and context make it, undoubtedly, worthwhile. Specific interventions, normally placed between performance and installation, developed by zdb’s work team.

Modified on Monday 20 September 2004