The Water Banquet at Desenhos de Cena: Cena#1. Exhibition, Sao Paulo, Brazil, April – July 2016

A major international exhibition curated by Dr Aby Cohen, "Scene Drawings # 1" proposes the breaking of borders between the performing and visual arts by presenting the work of invited artists from six continents which explores the possibilities of scene design by means of scenic, visual and aural elements. The exhibition brings together interventions, debates and educational actions that invite the audience to interact in the discovery of the repertoire of these artists and to engage with installations that will evolve in performance throughout the exhibition period.

"Scene Drawings # 1" includes works by Antony Gormley (UK), Antti Mäkelä (Finland), Cris Bierrenbach (Brazil), Dries Verhoeven (Netherlands), Emma Ransley (New Zealand), Gavin Krastin (South Africa), Giulia Pecorari (Italy), Ian Evans (UK), Laura Vinci (Brazil), Liu Xinglin (China), Marina Reis (Brazil), Peter Mumford (UK), Richard Downing (UK) and Valéria Martins (Brazil).

This new manifestation of The Water Banquet, created specifically for Desenhos de Cena, was uniquely prepared in response to the particular architecture and character of the host location, and as a means to collaborate and disseminate working methodologies with 24 local artists and art-educators. The table provides both a focal point for social and artistic gathering and an impetus for generating new, original, individual material. The project was built upon a period of correspondence and on-site training with Richard Downing to establish principles and techniques of design, composition and presentation. From this, collaborators then created a series of original, performed designs, on a daily basis of public engagement, over a period of three months.