Fondation CAB Brussels is pleased to present the reactivation of the performance Forever Immigrant (Tattoo) by Marco Godinho (n.1978, Salvaterra de Magos, Portugal) on Saturday 22 April, between 10 and 6 pm, the artist will present a performance with the help of the tattooist Yung-chi Ku.
In order to generate exchanges with living artists, in the spirit of those who loved to animate André Cadere around his work, Hervé Bize, curator of the exhibition, wished to invite Marco Godinho to reactivate this performance, a collaborative work of art whose first iteration took place in 2018 in Taipei.
The performative action Forever Immigrant (Tattoo) reflects on immigration and the “permanent uncertainties” that accompany it. It is a continuation of a work that Marco Godinho has presented since 2012 around the world, based on a stamp composed of the words Forever Immigrant. This same motif – a circle at the artist’s thumb scale – is used here in the form of a personalized tattoo for everyone and tattooed live on people who want it. They thus integrate a community of “immigrants forever”. A certificate of authenticity signed by the artist is given to them. As part of the André Cadere exhibition at Fondation CAB, Forever Immigrant (Tattoo) questions the importance of language and physical and mental displacement in the work of the two artists. In a nomadic practice, of a permanent wandering, Forever Immigrant (Tattoo) also opens discussions around the status and role of the artist in our society and the circulation of the work process itself. Cultivating simple gestures with a great economy of means.
The works of the two artists are imbued with lived memories and/or orally sublimated by others. Forever Immigrant (Tattoo) is formed in the invisible bonds that each tattooed person can weave, as well as in the presence of the tattoo on the body and the time of the performative action. 1978 is the year of Cadere’s death but also the year of Godinho’s birth. The biographical link between the disappearance of one life and the appearance of another can be considered as much a source of inspiration for the artist as the work itself.
Visual : Forever Immigrant (Tattoo), 2018-2023
In partnership with Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.
