Alexandre Estrela: Flat Bells

With his first New York exhibition, Flat Bells, Portuguese artist Alexandre Estrela brings shimmering video animations and an immersive soundscape to the Kravis Studio. Informed by his background in painting, Estrela’s moving-image projects often explore the interplay between materials and perception, updating Conceptual art’s exploration of the relationship between idea and object for the digital age.

Drawing on elements of geometric abstraction, graphic design, and experimental music, Flat Bells orchestrates sonic tempo and visual rhythm across multiple screens to examine how visual culture is experienced and marked by technological obsolescence. This study of spectatorship embraces the performative context of the Studio to stage another type of duet: that between man and machine. From neural networks to computer mainframes, synesthesia to earworms, Estrela calls attention to the systems that govern the life of the mind.

Organized by Sophie Cavoulacos, Associate Curator, Department of Film, with May Makki, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance. 

The Kravis Studio programs are presented as part of The Hyundai Card Performance Series.

Major support is provided by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Director’s Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art.

Generous funding is provided by the Lonti Ebers Endowment for Performance and the Sarah Arison Endowment Fund for Performance.