As a Satellite Space: Res do Chao

As a Satellite was a program with independent cultural initiatives in Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, which consisted of positioning and using Americas Society as their satellite for the production of exhibitions and event-based projects in New York. As a Satellite entailed the co-production and the presentation of a number of projects conceptualized by the selected initiatives.

For the purposes of As a Satellite, an independent cultural initiative was defined as an organization run by a collective of artists or by other types of cultural workers such as curators and critics. It included non-profits, exhibition spaces, publishing groups, web-based organizations, and other forms of collective practices. Governmental organizations and for-profit galleries were not eligible.

Rés de Chão, the fourth participant in As a Satellite, founded in 2002, operated from the small apartment of artist and cultural producer Edson Barros in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The space was defined as an Espaço de Convivência e Autonomia Experimental (a space for gathering and experimental autonomy) and as a free territory for the presentation and discussion of cultural and artistic practices. It organized gatherings, for study or even partying, making its library available to the public and its space to other groups, guests and collectives. Using strategies from reality television, a number of events or sites of artistic production in these cities were taped and streamed online. In addition, Rés de Chão organized, and improvised, a number of events to accompany or even disrupt such programming.

^{Açucar Invertido II, Rés de Chão’s project for As a Satellite. Live/work loft space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Edsun Barrus.}