Technical Unconscious is a cultural and multidisciplinary research project developed at the Fine Art School of the University of Porto, reactivating the post-industrial spaces of the Cooperativa dos Operários Pedreiros do Porto (Stone Masons Cooperative) in its Centenary, directed by Gonçalo Leite Velho and curated by Inês Moreira. The curatorial project’s quest is to activate an immersive route along the technical and analogical production, as well as the embodied and unconscious knowledges that we transport — the resident artists and the visitors.

Originating connections between the general concept of the project and the derelict spaces of the former factory of the Stone Masons Cooperative, the commissioned artworks explore “anachronistic” techniques, tools and materials found at these spaces, bringing it to the surface. The guests’ work processes initiate with field work and, as a mind-map or a silicon circuit, produce connections among them, with the spaces and with the local stories. The projects interconnect around eight nodes: building/place, post-industriality, material/machinery, science/knowledge, high-tech, memory/archive, low-tech/manuality and unconscious.

The activations occur in four moments: the first long residencies in 2013 — John Grzinich, Joana&Mariana, Manuel Granja e Post-Material Archive — enabling the field work at the factory and at the headquarter of the Stone Masons Cooperative unlocking the knowings at the archive, of the spaces and the small stories around the Cooperative. A second moment along the Summer and Fall 2014, when authors arrive to Porto in a series of three week residencies — Hiwa K, Daniele Sambo, Linda Brothwell, Cora Piantoni, Iztok Kovac, Moisés Manãs, Tomaz Furlan, Guidi + Racco, Relli De Vries — to develop in-situ projects, individually or in collaboration with the community. Then, during the Fall, the project is amplified by artist talks, performances, workshops and guided visits. Lastly, a public exhibition is presented, as an immersive route through six selected areas of the complex of the Stone Masons Cooperative, revealing the artworks and the technical work spaces — draft room, workshops, auditorium, hangar and the existing museum. (IM, 2014)

Technical Unconscious:
guided visit by Inês Moreira

A Porto University TVU piece on Technical Unconscious Exhibition