António Ole
Retrato Falado (Spoken Portrait), 2007, by António Ole
Retrato Falado (Spoken Portrait) is a work in progress composed by the first three portraits of a set that will comprise 12 portraits, which will then form a new installation. This new installation will then be more methodical in its formal research and more enigmatic as a dramatic creation. It is as if, from the addition of characters and attires, a moving play will take shape, illustrating a concealed wish to narrate.
O ritmo do Ngola Ritmos (The rhythm of Ngola Ritmos), 1978, by António Ole
Angola, 60′. Production: TPA.
The film is homage to the band Ngola Ritmos. This is a long documentary about the memory of a time, at the end of the 50s, which represents the beginning of the fight for freedom in Angola and the role played by the Ngola Ritmos in the underground fight. Ngola Ritmos symbolized the wakening of a new conscience and the making of a new type of music, created within an urban popular culture.
ANTONIO OLE was born in Luanda (Angola) in 1951. He lives and works in Luanda, country whose past and present inspire his work. He graduated from the American Film Institute of Los Angeles (USA) and studied Afro-American culture and cinema in the University of California (UCLA).
Painter, filmmaker and photographer, Ole has created a vast body of work that reflects the multiple aspects of his creative universe, focusing on the themes of colonisation, civil war, famine, social conflicts and, specially, the human capacity for resistance and survival. Throughout his artistic career, he has developed projects that reveal a certain formal and aesthetic eclecticism, his works including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video and cinema. He directed several documentaries and videos on the life and history of Angola, such as: Os Ferroviários (Railway workers), 1975; O Ritmo dos Ngola Ritmos (The Rhythm of Ngola Rhythms), 1978, Sonangol: 10 Anos Mais Forte (Sonangol: 10 Years Stronger), 1987, amongst others.
His first exhibition was in 1967 and since his international debut at the African-American Art Museum (Los Angeles), in 1984, his works have been shown in many exhibitions, festivals and biennales, including Havana (1986, 1988, 1997), São Paulo (1987), Berlin (1997), Johannesburg (1995, 1997), Dakar (1998) and Venice (2003, 2007). Noteworthy, is his participation in the prestigious touring exhibitions: Africa Remix, Contemporary Art of a Continent (Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Moderna Museum, Stockholm; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg) and The Short Century (Martin Groupius Bau, Berlin; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; PS-1/MOMA, New York). His most recent solo exhibitions, include: Hidden Pages, Stolen Bodies, Veemvloer, Amsterdam (2001); Olhar em Viagem (Gaze on a Journey), Alliance Française, Salvador (2003); António Ole: Marcas de um Percurso 1970-2004 (António Ole: Traces of a Route 1970-2004), Culturgest, Lisbon (2004) and António Ole, 111 Gallery, Lisbon (2007).