Fringe | Eat the frog, swallow the ebb

Solo presentation of Francisco Correia

Francisco Correia (Lisbon, 1996) lives and works in Brussels. He’s Quico to his mum and part of the family. And inexorably, Chico to his mates in Portugal. Rebecca calls him Ccicco. Judith says Sjieko, and Elias knows him as Francis. It’s Francisco at work. Once, he was Francis Goneia. Often ‘spelt like San Francisco’ and usually Francesco.

In recent years, Correia’s work has fluctuated between the absurdity of everyday life (finiteness, work, the economy) and the limitless capacity of stories to extrapolate reality into the realm of fantasy. These ideas mesh with a desire to create objects that embody personal memories and allude to what is commonly familiar through associations with graphic communication, television, and set design. From a broader perspective, his different groups of works produce narratives that are developed, taking into account the specific context and architecture of each exhibition.

Notably, Correia also explores beyond his artistic practice. He co-founded the aDrogaria (PT) collective and is the project lead for Umbigo (PT) magazine’s back pages. There, he presents work by visual artists whose medium is writing, communication, and graphic design.

Off the Grid is Cas-co’s in-house residency and presentation platform. One of the residency programmes specifically targets budding artists who don’t have a studio yet and have little or no access to the usual exhibition circuit or galleries. Artists are given three months in Off the Grid’s project space. It’s a springboard for engaging in dialogue with other professionals and focussing on a specific study or aspect of their practice (e.g., mastering a new medium). The residency concludes with a two-week solo presentation and an artist talk on the sidelines of the opening or finissage.