Jonathan Uliel Saldanha: Capital Archangels

Duarte Sequeira is thrilled to announce the first solo exhibition of gallery-represented artist Jonathan Uliel Saldanha at the gallery.

Saldanha is a composer, visual artist and stage director. His explorations span pre-language concepts, otherness, and the interplay of synthetic and natural landscapes. Operating within the intersection of sound, gesture, voice, installation, performance, and film, Saldanha delves into realms preceding language, mutation, acoustic animism, echo, mimicry, and intracranial-dub.

Capital Archangels is an exploration of the relationship between art, technology, and spirituality, presenting two sculptures embodying the essence of a mutated archangel. These sculptures, created from remnants of Kawasaki motorcycle parts, manifest as beings whose prosthetic flesh serves as conduits for transmitting information from the margins in a bewitched occupation of the peripheral matter of our cities. Resonating with echoes of the archangels, they move in an ethereal manner, obscuring the boundaries between human and machine, celestial and terrestrial. As the archetype of the archangel emerges, a winged entity from the realm of angels, appearing in this exhibition as a symbolic representation of mutation. Part human, part animal, the archangelic figure soars like a drone, conveying information to higher echelons.

Jonathan Uliel Saldanha (b.1979, Paris) is the founder of SOOPA company and the director of the ensembles HHY & The Macumbas and HHY & The Kampala Unit. He was the Associated Artist at Rivoli - Porto Municipal Thetaer during two seasons (2020/2021 and 2021/2022). Saldanha ́s installations, music and performances have been presented at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Serralves Museum, Porto; Unsound Festival, Poland; Teatro Municipal Rivoli, Porto; Forum Arte, Braga; Solar Galeria de Arte Cinemática, Vila do Conde; Teatro Nacional São Carlos, Lisbon; GNRation, Braga; CCB, Lisbon; CTM, Berlin; Nyege Nyege; Uganda; Culturgest, Porto.