Christina Elias
Sao Paulo, 1978

photo Helena Marc
Artist of the body. Her creative process is built upon the transformation of text into movement, image and sound. Creation takes place in the spaces of passage between visual arts, dance and literature. Performance is the instrument she uses to produce art objects on different media: screens, objects, installations, photography and video. Her research involves silenced stories in the body with a specific focus on the relationships between vulnerability and power. The "erasement" of self as metamorphosis is a principle that guides her physical action in performances and is printed on all objects emerging from them. The text always blurs, the face is invisible, the body at some point will be absent.
She has exhibited in several museums and galleries in Brazil and Europe, such as MAC-USP, MAM SP, MIS SP, Paço das Artes (São Paulo), MARP (Ribeirão Preto), MAXXI (Rome), Studio Stefania Miscetti (Rome), Radyalsystem (Berlin), among others. Plataforma Festival (Berlin, 2011), Verbo Festival (Red Gallery, 2015), Festival Dança em Foco (Rio de Janeiro, 2016), Festival SheDevil (Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome, 2017), Bump'n Grind Festival (Toronto, Canada, 2019 – best activist video award). 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-doctoral research at PUC-SP on art, activism and feminism. In Berlin, she was trainee assistant of direction of the choreographer Sasha Walz and practiced Butoh with artists such as Yuko Kaseki and Minako Seki. Member of the CEO / Center for Oriental Studies - PUC/SP. Likes threads and thoughts.
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)
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
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
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.
2021 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)