Documentaries and Interviews

Program 7 - Documentaries and Interviews

available on Eduardo Kac: Telepresence, Bio Art & Poetry [1980-2010]

Porn Art Movement
Sérgio Péo, 1982, 04:43, Brazil, b&w, sound, video

Video documenting the performance Interversão [Interversion] by the Movimento de Arte Pornô, at Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The movement took place under a military dictatorship between 1980 and 1982, and pioneered the use of pornography both as a form of political resistance and as an innovative art medium. The movement was formally experimental, politically progressive, and socially nonnormative. It used the word “porn” deliberately but did not produce conventional pornography. Rather, the movement rejected erotica, (which was accepted by the dictatorship) and subverted the logic of pornography to create social, political, and aesthetic alternatives that employed humor, scatology, surprise, poetry, performance, body politics, and pansexuality. The video shows the artists performing porn poetry publicly, creating graffiti such as Kac’s one-word poem Overgoze [Overcum] and carrying out a nude demonstration along the beach (which was and still is forbidden by law) with banners featuring their slogans. This performance mobilized public participation and culminated with a collective dive in the ocean — a symbolic act meant to  signify self-renewal, the beginning of a better path forward beyond the prevailing political and aesthetic conservatism. This event took place on February 13th, 1982, at Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is considered the formal end of the Porn Art Movement.


Rabbit Remix
Canal Contemporâneo, 2004, 10:37, Brazil, color, sound, video

Video documenting the artist’s solo exhibition, Rabbit Remix, realized at Laura Marsiaj Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from September 19th to October 23rd, 2004. The exhibition featured works from the GFP Bunny series, including photographs, drawings, artist’s book, flag, web art, and public interventions all over Rio de Janeiro. The video also presents commentaries by art critics and the general public.

One on One: Eduardo Kac
Al Jazeera, 2008, 22:19, U.A.E., color, sound, video

Al Jazeera’s program One on One: Eduardo Kac, featuring Riz Khan’s interview with Eduardo Kac, where the artist comments on his Bio Art practice, focusing on the artworks Time Capsule (1997), Genesis (1999), and GPF Bunny (2000). The interview also covers the artist’s family history, breakthrough moments in his career, and future projects. The program was broadcast on February 23rd, 2008.

Living Works
PAV Contemporary Art Center, 2011, 12:24, Italy, color, sound, video

Video presenting excerpts of an artist’s talk focusing on holographic poetry, telepresence works, and Bio Art. The talk was held in the context of the solo exhibition Eduardo Kac: Living Works at PAV Contemporary Art Center (Parco d’Arte Vivente) and Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy, from June 9th to September 25th, 2011.

13 Heures
France 2, 2008, 05:54, France, color, sound, video

Interview by Elise Lucet about the artist’s production, specially regarding his transgenic works, realized in the context of the French publication of Kac’s book Life Extreme: Guide illustré de nouvelles formes de vies [Life Extreme: An illustrated guide to new life]. The interview was broadcast live on June 19th, 2008 in the program Journal Télévisé.

Eduardo Kac: Eight Dialogues
Bruno Vianna, 2000, 28:06, Brazil, color, sound, video

Video presenting an overview of the artist’s trajectory, including interviews with the artist and with art critics Annick Bureaud, Christiane Paul, and Arlindo Machado. The video features aspects of the artist’s performance practice from the early 1980s as well as his telepresence works and Bio Art.

Video Vonews toute l’actualité du Val d’oise
Brice Martinelli, 2011, 02:15, France, color, sound, video

Video presenting an overview of Kac’s solo exhibition at Enghien-les-Bains Art Center, France, from January 21st to April 10th, 2011. The video documents the exhibition space as well as the artist’s comments about his works.

Brasil High Tech
TV Manchete, 1986, 04:45, Brazil, color, sound, video

Video documenting the exhibition Brasil High Tech, organized by Kac and Flavio Ferraz, and held at Galeria de Arte Centro Empresarial Rio [Rio Business Center Art Gallery], in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1986. Brasil High Tech was a group show that displayed some of the most innovative new media art of its time. In this television broadcast, Kac was interviewed in front of his holopoem Abracadabra and explained the basic principles of holopoetry. The video also documents Minitel artworks, which used an online network that predated the Internet and Kac’s wireless telepresence event.

TEDxVienna: What if art could truly create biological life
TEDxVienna, 2015, 18:31, Austria, color, sound, video

Eduardo Kac delivers a TED talk on the possibilities of art birthing biological life. Kac asks, “What if we could realize the ultimate dream of art and truly create biological life?”