The work of Robert Filliou (Sauve, France, 1926-Les Eyzies, France, 1987) was born out of breaking down the boundaries between life and art. By making them indiscernible and inseparable, the artist created intrinsically liberating artistic proposals, materialised through assemblages, videos, drawings, performances and textual works. At their core, the concepts of authorship, aura, artistic “taste”, and the very existence of the work of art were imaginatively challenged.

Robert Filliou formulated some practical-theoretical proposals, such as the “principle of equivalence” and the idea of “permanent creation”. In the former, a portrait of the artist “well done” would be equivalent to one “badly done” and also to one “not done at all”: all three cases would be valid, individually or in combination. By claiming that the only criterion is the absence of criteria, the artist called into question the dogmatic judgement of the arts. In turn, the idea of “permanent creation” was a proposition to free thought, to refrain from creativity and action, through the statement: “The absolute secret of permanent creation: not deciding, not choosing, not wanting, not owning, aware of self, wide awake. Sitting quietly doing nothing”.

MOSTEIRO DE SANTA CLARA-A-NOVA

Imitating the Sound of Birds, 1979

Instalação sonora multicanal, 00’55

Cortesia Espólio Robert Filliou e Galeria Peter Freeman Inc.

Along the corridor of the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, Robert Filliou’s whistles accompany the footsteps of visitors. Like a ghostly whisper, Imitating the Sound of Birds (1979) dialogues simultaneously with this space’s history, the artist’s biography, and the phantoms of liberty that hang over this edition of the Biennial. Brought to the Monastery, the work mirrors the place where Robert Filliou lived the last years of his life, the Buddhist monastery of Chanteloube, in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France.

CAPC CÍRCULO SEDE

Whispered History of Art, 1963

Instalação sonora, stereo, 22’30

Cortesia Espólio Robert Filliou e Galeria Peter Freeman Inc

On 17 January 1963, Robert Filliou proclaimed the 1,000,000th Anniversary of Art. In 1974, Portuguese artist Ernesto de Sousa, in collaboration with the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra, organised the 1,000,011st anniversary of art at CAPC Sede. At the event, “a very successful party”, a translation of Robert Filliou’s poem Whispered History of Art was drawn on the wall.

In this edition of the Biennial, the poem once again occupies the house that houses CAPC Sede—this time, whispered in the voice of the artist himself, in a recording from 1963. In an irreverent way, Whispered History of Art echoes the decades of artistic and political celebration that have taken place in this space — where, on the eve of 25 April, there was such a huge celebration that a samba dance had to be interrupted “because the ceiling in the downstairs room was starting to collapse”, as Ernesto de Sousa recounted in a letter to Robert Filliou.