El Aleph had two different births. As an idea, it began to take shape in the year of 2020, as the health crisis facing the globe seemed to halt the atoms of time, and in the standstill no path towards a future seemed certain. Asked to quieten, the historical 'storm of progress' which would soon be reinstated had temporarily withered. It was in that opening, after having completed a humanist formation in the history of thought and aesthetics, that Menahem Wrona and Hannah Scharmer began to summon their uncertainty towards the creation of a place where art was to be investigated as a door into the human experiment and as a way towards life.
Sollicitudin ac orci phasellus egestas tellus rutrum. Mauris sit amet massa vitae. Ullamcorper dignissim cras tincidunt lobortis feugiat. Aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna sit. Nullam non nisi est sit amet. Vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt. Erat velit scelerisque in dictum. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras. Dignissim convallis aenean et tortor at risus viverra adipiscing at. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper dignissim cras. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis. Nulla at volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in. Ut consequat semper viverra nam libero justo laoreet sit. Elit duis tristique sollicitudin nibh sit. In tellus integer feugiat scelerisque varius. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus.
Pleun Gremmen
Menahem Wrona (Brasil)
“My multidisciplinary practice unravels mythologies, fictions and histories through the exploration, queering and rewriting of body, time and (virtual) reality. Through storytelling and world-building, the multimedia installations I have conceptualized have employed techniques across 3D-sculpting, visual research, performance and design. Having co-founded artistic space and laboratory El Aleph in Porto, in 2021, we were guided by investigations in community-building, shared ritual, and the question of time in performance.
Throughout my work, I have found myself in search of the connection between new digital landscapes and (ancient) iconography, investigating the body, dynamics of power, discourses on gender, and the history of science and technology.”
— Pleun Gremmen (Netherlands)
Hannah Scharmer (Germany)
Reading Group
Sollicitudin ac orci phasellus egestas tellus rutrum. Mauris sit amet massa vitae. Ullamcorper dignissim cras tincidunt lobortis feugiat. Aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna sit. Nullam non nisi est sit amet. Vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt. Erat velit scelerisque in dictum. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras. Dignissim convallis aenean et tortor at risus viverra adipiscing at. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper dignissim cras. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis. Nulla at volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in. Ut consequat semper viverra nam libero justo laoreet sit. Elit duis tristique sollicitudin nibh sit. In tellus integer feugiat scelerisque varius. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus.
Morning workshop
Sollicitudin ac orci phasellus egestas tellus rutrum. Mauris sit amet massa vitae. Ullamcorper dignissim cras tincidunt lobortis feugiat. Aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna sit. Nullam non nisi est sit amet. Vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt. Erat velit scelerisque in dictum. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras. Dignissim convallis aenean et tortor at risus viverra adipiscing at. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper dignissim cras. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis. Nulla at volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in. Ut consequat semper viverra nam libero justo laoreet sit. Elit duis tristique sollicitudin nibh sit. In tellus integer feugiat scelerisque varius. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus.
Music events
Sollicitudin ac orci phasellus egestas tellus rutrum. Mauris sit amet massa vitae. Ullamcorper dignissim cras tincidunt lobortis feugiat. Aliquet nibh praesent tristique magna sit. Nullam non nisi est sit amet. Vestibulum lectus mauris ultrices eros in cursus turpis massa tincidunt. Erat velit scelerisque in dictum. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus cras. Dignissim convallis aenean et tortor at risus viverra adipiscing at. Platea dictumst vestibulum rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper dignissim cras. Mauris augue neque gravida in fermentum et sollicitudin ac. Adipiscing vitae proin sagittis nisl rhoncus mattis. Nulla at volutpat diam ut venenatis tellus in. Ut consequat semper viverra nam libero justo laoreet sit. Elit duis tristique sollicitudin nibh sit. In tellus integer feugiat scelerisque varius. Sem viverra aliquet eget sit amet tellus.
Painting
El Aleph also provides a painting and art-making studio which allows for up to three artists working simultaneously. The paintings that will be created during this period are in dialogue with the larger project, though the painting practice is often a solitary one. For the imagery, inspiration, and motifs will inevitably be interwoven with the organization and work of El Aleph as a whole, and, by materializing in concrete, visual pieces, these paintings might serve as a mirror through which El Aleph can see and reflect upon itself in possibly surprising and fruitful ways. It is crucial to have a space where painting and visual artmaking can take place physically. Not only will this allow other artists to experiment with new forms of creation but it also gives space for painters to join the collective endeavor. We believe that the creation of—and the act of taking seriously– imagery, symbols, and visual worlds can inform and co-shape both how we choose to take the project forward as well as our own relationship to our daily lives.
The Wandering Womb
“The Wandering Womb” is a collaboration between El Aleph founders Pleun Gremmen and Menahem Wrona. It is the first work in a series on the poetics of creation, presented as a 3D video installation and virtual cosmos, exploring the relationship between reason and unreason, the dissolution of scale, and creation from nothing. Tracing a genealogy ‘from the deep’ [tehom], the shifting gazes of the Wandering Womb erected a visual and sonic dialectics of ‘God’s eyes,’ or ‘Archimedean Point,’ playing between the dynamics of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ creation, religion and science, and the dance of divinity and matter to the enduring question of where we come from.
Liza Ostrovska (Latvia),
Louisa Teichmann (Germany),
Brenna O'Brien (US),
Beatriz Rola (Portugal),
Ava Simonds (US),
Da Hye (South Korea),
Naiana Padial (Brasil),
Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal),
Eline Benjaminsen (Norway),
Karolina (Lithuania),
Nora Krasniqi (Kosovo),
Geoff Lehman (US),
Tamar (Georgia),
Luka Ispir (France),
Gabriel Bindel (Austria),
Camila Fraga (Brasil),
Hannah Scharmer (Germany),
Valter Lima (Portugal),
Inês Luzio (Portugal)