Open Bodies, the Fruitmarket Gallery’s Brazilian open call residency programme, supports artists making performance work around gender and sexuality.
During September 2018, two Scotland-based artists, Stephanie Black-Daniels and Henry McPherson, joined two Brazilbased artists, Vinícius Pinto Rosa and Miro Spinelli, for a month at our partner institution Despina, a progressive independent art space in Rio de Janeiro.
The relationship between Despina and the Fruitmarket Gallery grew out of an exchange of staff through British Council Brazil’s Exchange/ Intercâmbio programme in 2017. Iain Morrison, Enterprise Engagement Curator (The Fruitmarket Gallery) and Consuelo Bassanesi, Artistic Director (Despina) explored each other’s organisations with particular interest in the representation of political and activist art in their programmes.
The British Council continued to support the working relationship between the two galleries with support for Open Bodies, giving the Fruitmarket Gallery a chance to learn in a hands on way from the operating. Find out more in the Open Bodies interpretation document, which is available for download below.