Ruín of the Future: Video-performance by Dorottya Czakó and Ramon Zagotto

2022 / Video-performance, 4’51’’

Dorottya Czakó, Director & Screenplay
Ramon Zagotto, Director of Photography
Bárbara Veronez & Gabriela Moriondo, Performance
Bárbara Veronez, Voice
Andressa Freitas, Assistant Camera
Marcus Neves, Sound Designer & Original Score
Ramon Zagotto, Editor and Colorist

Ruína do Futuro (2022) was produced on the occasion of the event Cais + Artes in Vitória, Brazil, organised and funded by the Federal University of Espírito Santo and the Espírito Santo State Department of Culture.

With the direction of Dorottya Czakó (b. 1990, Hungary) and the photographic direction of Ramon Zagotto (b. 1988, Brazil), Ruína do Futuro [Ruin of the Future] stages a bodily relationship with a museum in construction that was in a state of abandonment for the last 10 years. The Cais das Artes, located in the coastal town of Vitória in Espírito Santo, Brazil, has had its construction interrupted and legally embarged, symbolising local political mismanagement, corruption, and false hopes. Its construction only restarted in May 2024.

Through the movements of Bárbara Veronez and Gabriela Moriondo, Ruína do Futuro highlights the staggering contrast between the building’s brutalist architecture and the fluidity of the city’s seaside, with its characteristic windswept urbanicity and surrounding calming waters. The video-performance that resulted from their engagement expands on the artists’ intent to occupy and resignify the urban space. Considering that the almost 60 million euro investment of the Cais das Artes never had the participation or approval of the local population, this artistic appropriation becomes in itself a political gesture.

Curatorial: Lia Carreira
Exhibition Design: Seth Weiner & Bernhard Garnicnig
Design & Communication: Paulina Seuling

Funded by: República Portuguesa - Cultura / DGARTES – Direção-Geral das Artes.
This online exhibition is part of the PdBA Lisboa’s Digital Spatialities.