Leonilson (1957—1993) was one of the major exponents of a generation of Brazilian artists known as Geração 80 (80s Generation). These artists celebrated their newly acquired freedom after the overthrow of Brazil´s military dictatorship, 1985, namely by creating their works from a socially critical position.

A diagnose with AIDS In 1991, came to mark Leonilson’s life. He then decides to make his homosexuality more public and intensifies the autobiographical and intimate nature of his artistic production. At the intersections between his diaristic accounts, the approaches to themes of desire and (homo)eroticism, the questioning of supposed truths and of hypocrite good morals, as well as the advocacy of plurality, we find the political dimension of a cultural activism in defense of diversity and tolerance, critical of prejudice and normativity.

To mark the closing of Leonilson’s retrospective exhibition in Serralves, the contemporary music ensemble ars ad hoc presents a program that brings together music by composers that mark the recognition of queer communities: Julius Eastman’s “organic music” contrasts with the provocation in the titles of many of his works, in line with the audacity with which he assumed his gay and black identity; the minimalist music of composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies, inhabited by the resonances of her sociopolitical and psychological research and identity as a trans and queer woman; and a piece by Pauline Oliveros, a fundamental composer in the history of avant-garde music whose radical innovations simultaneously took root and fed feminist movements, namely lesbians.

Programme:

JULIUS EASTMAN, Piano 2 [1986], 15’

SARAH HENNIES, Lake [2018], 15’

(violin, piano and vibraphone)

PAULINE OLIVEROS, Tree/Peace [1984], 23’

(violin, cello and piano)

ARS AD HOC

Diogo Coelho, violin

Gonçalo Lélis, cello

João Casimiro Almeida, piano

Nuno Aroso, percussion
Diana Ferreira, artistic direction

Co-production: Fundação de Serralves and Arte no Tempo