In 1917, Marcel Duchamp writes “1917” in an upside down urinal. In 1919, he draws a moustache in the most important portrait of the history of art; not the original one (he’s not Banksy), not even a reproduction (Pop was yet to be invented), but a portrait he painted himself, copying the “original”, and, by doing so, almost repeating Melville: I would prefer not to. In 1921, Man Ray photographs Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy, thus completing the circle, or else paving the way for the artist’s disappearance. A century later, we still don’t know how to deal, historically and artistically, with these radical endeavours, sometimes discrediting them (or assigning them new authorships...), sometimes assuming a somewhat insurmountable historical irresolution for them. ‘MISSED-EN-ABÎME’ aims to talk about a (centennial) gesture which can be interpreted as destruction, revelation, or simply self-imposed ostracism, as if it was impossible to do anything more after having obliterated (almost) everything. Duchamp spent decades doing nothing, the reason why Enrique Vila-Matas decided to dedicate some footnotes to him in his novel about the negative authors (‘Bartleby & Cia.’, 2000): « One time, in Paris, artist Naum Gabo asks Marcel Duchamp the reason for having stopped paiting. “Mais que voulez-vous?”, answers Duchamp, raising his arms in the air. “Je n’ai plus d’idées!” ». Inspired by this impasse, ‘MISSED-EN-ABÎME’ ritualizes a queer, sacrificial isolationism, thus daring to revisit Duchamp’s negligence while avoiding to find it a solution — « …parce qu’il n’y a pas de problème » —, rather accepting failure, withdrawal, invisibility and oblivion, perhaps also disappearance, as acts of survival and resistance.

Subtitled ‘Psychobiography of a Losing Hero (1917-1921)’, this piece consists in a three-part display (performance/installation, book and film) meant to be shown in the space of the contemporary art museum, thus concluding a research process on Art-History-Solitude conducted by Rogério Nuno Costa in collaboration with artists and thinkers from Portugal and Finland.

Creation, Direction, Edition and Performance: Rogério Nuno Costa

Production: Inês Carvalho e Lemos

Set Display: Luís Lázaro Matos

Light Design & Technical Direction: Kristian Palmu

Sound Art: Niko Skorpio

Movement Dramaturgy: Pie Kär

Design Gráfico: Jani Nummela

Workshop e Dramaturgical Support: Colectivo FACA (Andreia Coutinho & Maribel Sobreira)

Stage Photography: Miguel Refresco

Project funded by Governo de Portugal – Direção-Geral das Artes.

Co-production: Teatro Viriato and MUDAS. Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Madeira.

Residencies: Rua das Gaivotas 6, Là-Bas Studio/Kaapelitehdas, Aalto University (School of Arts, Design and Architecture), Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris – Maison du Portugal, Campus Paulo e Silva. Preview presentations: Museum of Impossible Forms (Helsinki, 2018), Maison du Portugal/Parfums de Lisbonne (Paris, 2021).

Premiere: Serralves Museu de Arte Contemporânea (Porto). Tour: Festival Contradança (Covilhã), Festival Temps d’Images/Museu Coleção Berardo (Lisbon), Teatro Viriato (Viseu), Chão de Oliva/Festival Periferias (Sintra), Teatro-Cine de Torres Vedras and MUDAS (Madeira).

Support: A Bela Associação (Almada), Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte (Sta. Maria da Feira), Estrutura (Porto), Teatro Feiticeiro do Norte (Funchal).