The solo exhibition “The Day Tarrare Ate Che”, by Diogo “Gazella” Carvalho, opens on April 3, Thursday, at 6:00 pm, at the School of Arts of the Autonomous University of Lisbon, with free entry.
In this exhibition, which opens the annual programme of the School of Arts, the multidisciplinary artist seeks to reflect on the condition of artists from peripheral contexts and the inseparability forged (among others, by institutions) between the work produced and this same context as an act of subsistence. Based on an anthropophagic movement that digests and then regurgitates counter-culture into a cake, that is, into a homogeneous mass, “Gazella” raises the following issues: “When (our) place at the table depends on being the food served, is that access? […] Can someone from a peripheral context talk about issues that extend beyond marginalisation? Trauma?”
In the words of the artist, the works exhibited in “The Day Tarrare Ate Che” question “the role that each person plays in this process […] If nothing else, through the very attempt to denounce that, being aware of what he is part of, he constitutes himself – consciously – as just another element of that same menu. The artist who, in order to sustain himself, allows himself to be devoured… me”.
Diogo “Gazella” Carvalho was born in 1997 in Lisbon, which expelled him and his family to a suburb, the Sintra Line. Diogo’s artistic life began early, but it was only in France that he discovered his artistic vision and way of thinking. With several exhibitions, Diogo even won a national comics competition in France. He never forgot where he grew up, and he immersed himself in meaningful and profound audiovisual projects and, in 2018, he created the artistic collective UniDigrazz with the musician Tristany and the visual artist Onun Trigueiros, bringing the freshness of “Sintranagem” to the Portuguese cultural circuit.
He produced the cover for “Labanta Braço”, a compilation of black musicians promoted by SOS Racismo. In 2019, he was part of the Lisboa Criola project. In 2020, he conceived the series “Baxu Ku Riba”, nominated for best film by the Official Brazilian Festival Mimb-4o – Mostra Itinerante de Cinemas Negros. He was responsible for directing music videos for Julinho KSD, Trista, Yuran and Kibow from the group Instinto 26, and for Tristany. In 2022, he exhibited at MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology), with the collective UniDigrazz in the collective “Interferências”, curated by Carla Cardoso, Alexandre Farto and Brito Guterres. In 2022, he participated with a collective piece at IMINENTE MARSEILLE, with the collective Unidigrazz, presenting “kintal”. In 2022, he created TEATRU DIGRA with the artist SEPHER AWK, acting as writer and director. “UNDEU” is the name of the play presented for the first time at the Ano0 festival. In 2022, he also directed the short film “Nha Fidju”, which was shown at the “Interferências” exhibition at MAAT and has since been selected by several film festivals (Lisbon Film Rendezvous, Lift – off Global Network, Squardi – European Independent Short Film Night, Festival Estendal).
The exhibition “The Day Tarrare Ate Che”, by Diogo “Gazella” Carvalho, is part of the annual exhibition programme of the School of Arts of the Autonomous University of Lisbon. The programme aims to showcase works by emerging artists, promoting the most diverse languages and expressions of contemporary art, and simultaneously promoting the transfer of knowledge between the academic context, the professional sector and civil society.
