The exhibition saw Castilho, a Portuguese/Brazilian artist, project a large scale video onto the front of the building. Ausencia II featured a dancer clad in an elaborate bright red gown endlessly twirling back and forth. The gown flowed out and then back against her body as she danced. She endlessly spun, marking time in a self-contained world. Her delicate movements seemed to be endlessly changing, yet were contained within a loop, like thought patterns, or intrusive memories, or things that can not be gotten out of the head, swirling in the dark night air. The stark dance recalls wailing women, mourning, sexual passion (its loss and rapture), as well as Castihlo’s more formal pictorial concerns. Castilho filmed and choreographed the performance, and designed the featured dress.
Castilho founded BACKSTAGE(1995) and MO.TIV (1999). Performances include: Umbrella-Dance On Screen ’96 (UK), Festival “Cour de Capucin’99”(Luxembourg), Groningen (Holland), International Festival of Urban spaces (Portugal) and represented Portugal in the ‘Cutting Edge-International Competition of New Forms of Theatre’ (Germany). Castilho’s video works have been presented at the Portobello Film Festival’03, Danca Brasil/ Mostra de Video Danca’2003 (Brazil), Cinemed/Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier/International Video Art’2002 (France), Video Lisboa’2001 (Portugal), International Festival/Video Portugues’2001 (Portugal), and in 2003 her film ‘Process 5703/2000’ was the Winner of the Best Film (Selection: Solidarity) at the Competition ‘Premio Europeu Massimo Troisi’ (Italy).
The work was projected from dusk to 10pm during January 2004.