Ana Cláudia Almeida and Carla Santana: Submersive Act I

Ana Cláudia Almeida and Carla Santana exhibit a two-person presentation Submersive Act I.

The artist duo was selected through an open call to paint the bottom of a swimming pool, their design to be submerged in water. On the boundary between painting, installation and performance, the creation process was open to visitors to witness live the choreography of painting by Almeida and Santana. The culmination point of the project came with filling the pool, where water modifies the painting, creating optical distortion. The movement of water harmonizes the organic shapes of the painting with the reflection of the sky and surroundings.

Almeida and Santana believe that “by sharing intellectual affinities and working together, we realised the interest in building a site-specific [work] that would lead to the relationship between bodily performance and surface performance.” Submersive Act I was made possible with the support of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo, through ProAC, and took place at auroras in São Paulo, Brazil.