Christina Elias
Sao Paulo, 1978

photo Helena Marc
Artist of the body. Her work is built on the confusion between duos such as skin/clothing, movement/text and body/object, establishing bridges between visual arts, dance and literature. Performance is the instrument she uses to produce art objects on different media: canvases, fabrics, drawings, installations, self-portraits and video. Her research approaches the body as an archive of memories to be unveiled and rewritten in the present by the transformations that the passage of time and movement in space necessarily impose to everything that exists. It is a body subject to exhaustion: exposed to potential invasions and violence, exposed to the look and judgment of the other, to disease, fungi, moisture, the sun, the wind... an oxidizable body whose power and beauty are born precisely from its vulnerabilities and openings. The "blurring" of the self is the principle that guides her creative process. The text always blurs, the face is invisible, the individual body at some point will be absent.
She has exhibited in several museums and galleries in Brazil, such as MAC-USP, MAM SP, MIS SP, Paço das Artes (SP), MARP (Ribeirão Preto), MUNA (Art Museum of the Federal University of Uberlândia), Casa Niemeyer (Brasília), LONA galeria (São Paulo), LUX Art space (São Paulo), and in Europe, such as MAXXI (Rome), Studio Stefania Miscetti (Rome), Radyalsystem (Berlin), Ada Studio (Berlin), London Contemporary Art Fair, Venice International Art Fair, Rome International Art Fair, MUSA Arts Space (Rome) among others. Plataforma Festival (Berlin, 2011), Festival Verbo (Galeria Vermelho, 2015), Festival Dança em Foco (Rio de Janeiro, 2016), Festival SheDevil de video arte de mulheres (Studio Stefania Miscetti, Roma, 2017), Festival Bump'n Grind (Toronto, Canada, 2019 – best activist video award), LUX Festival of performances (São Paulo), MIRADA Iberoamerican Festival of performing arts 2022 (SESC Santos). FUNARTE Women in visual arts award 2013. Aldir Blanc Visual Arts Award for career history 2020. FUNARTE Respirarte Visual Arts Award 2020. Master's degree in Movement Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London) and PhD in Design from Anhembi Morumbi University (São Paulo). Post-doctorate at PUC-SP on the theme of art, activism and feminism. In Berlin, she was trainee of Sasha Walz & Guests Dance Company and practiced Butô with artists such as Yuko Kaseki and Minako Seki. Member of the CEO Center for Oriental Studies - PUC/SP.
awards
2013 FUNARTE – Women in Visual Arts
2017 Paço das Artes, Season of Projects (Secretary of Culture of the State of São Paulo)
2020 FUNARTE Respirarte Visual Arts
2020 Aldir Blanc PROAC Visual Arts
2020 Bump'n Grind Video and Performance Festival (Toronto, Canada). Best activist film (for Every Woman, 2020)
public collections
MAC/USP - Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of Sao Paulo
MARP - Ribeirão Preto Art Museum
MunA - University Museum of Art of the Federal University of Uberlândia
education
2011-2012 Master in Movement Studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London, UK)
2015-2020 PhD in Design from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi (São Paulo)
2021 – ongoing Post-Doc at PUC São Paulo, Communication and Semiotics - Art, Activism and Feminism
INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
2022 The book of time. LUX espaço de arte, São Paulo
2020 Absent Body. MUNA (University Museum of Art - Federal University of Uberlândia)
2020 Cristina Elias: Every Woman. Palace of Arts, Sao Paulo
2017 INSCRIPTURA - Performance, objects and video. Paço das Artes, São Paulo. Projects Season.
2017 Cristina Elias. Music Box. Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome
2015 PER-FORMARSI: L'AZIONE COME FORMA DI PERCEZIONE. MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome
2014 PHONETIC FRAGMENTS OF ONE SELF Funarte Women in Visual Arts Award 2013 MAM (São Paulo Museum of Modern Art); MIS (Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo)
2011 Here and There [or Somewhere InBetween], Radial System, Berlin
2009 EPIFANIA SUSPENSA, Casa Fernando Pessoa, Lisbon
2006-2007 PASSAGENS DE LISBOA, High Commissioner for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue, Lisbon
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2022 Unheimlich (Lona gallery, São Paulo)
2022 From the tracing of the line to superficiality (Lona gallery, São Paulo)
2022 The body language (The room, Venice)
2022 Open Archive (Lona gallery, Sao Paulo)
2021 Venice International Art Fair (The Room, Venice)
2021 London Contemporary Art Fair (The Line, London)
2021 Rome International Art Fair (Medina Art Gallery, Rome)
2021 MARP Ribeirão Preto Art Museum – Exhibition season.
2020 Can you see me? Can you hear me? Narratives of the digital. (Casa Niemeyer, Brasília)
2020 Interações I – Lona gallery, São Paulo
2020 Women Essence MUSA ARTS SPACE / UNESCO (Rome, Italy).
2020 Women on stage Paço das Artes São Paulo.
2018 Retrotopias Occupation Madalena Laura Building, São Paulo.
2018 Asymmetrical Crossings: Text and Movement. Atelier Ale, São Paulo.
2018 BURGOS #2 FUNARTE São Paulo.
PERFORMANCE AND VIDEO FESTIVALS
2013 Platform-Berlin, Uferstudios, Berlin.
2013 Boddinale – International Experimental Video Festival, Loophole, Berlin.
2015 VERBO, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo.
2015 Transfusion. Guilherme de Almeida House Museum, São Paulo.
2015 Ada Studio / Uferstudios, Berlin. Presentation season.
2016 Dance in Focus, Rio de Janeiro.
2018 SheDevil, Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome.
2020 Bump'n Grind Film and Performance Festival, Toronto.
2021 CLAREIRA MAC-USP (Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo)
2022 PerformAR Festival de performance (São Paulo)
2022 LUX Performance Festival (São Paulo)
2022 MIRADA Ibero-american Festival of Performing Arts (SESC, Santos)