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Artist Talk: Leonardo Ramadinha

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

FotoFest presents a talk featuring  Rio de Janeiro-based artist Leonardo Ramadinha held in conjunction with his current exhibition, Last Party, on view on FotoFest’s website through February 14. For his talk Ramadinha will discuss his image-based documentation of digital party spaces, specifically addressing dance parties held on Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic global shut down of early 2020, dancers, ravers, DJs, and club kids began to co-opt the tailored-for-business video conference platform Zoom, utilizing the platform’s multi-video meeting function to hold online dance parties. From their bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens, partygoers from around the globe signed on, turned their speakers up, and danced alone, but together virtually. Leonardo Ramadinha’s series Last Party offers a glimpse into these parties through a collection of screenshot images made by the artist throughout the pandemic. Ramadinha’s images speak to the collective mental and physical perseverance of youth around the globe. They are a testament to the resilience of community, showing a way that people can create space for transcendent experiences even in the face of catastrophe.

An interview with the artist and the artist’s work can be found on the FotoFest website here.

This project is presented as a part of FotoFest’s online digital residency program. Ramadinha was selected by FotoFest during the FestFoto Porto Alegre Portfolio Review event.

About the artist

Leonardo Ramadinha (b. Carioca, 1977, lives and works in Rio de Janeiro) holds an undergraduate degree in social communication from Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, a degree in visual arts at Universidade Estácio de Sá, and a postgraduate degree in photography and social sciences from Universidade Candido Mendes.

​Ramadinha has participated in group and individual exhibitions in Brazil, Argentina, USA, Colombia, Germany, and Slovenia. In 2000 he was one of the artists awarded the Rio Jovem Artista Award. In 2003, Recoleta Cultural Center in Buenos Aires awarded Ramadinha an opportunity to show his work in the Encuentros Abiertos, a festival affiliated with the Festival da Luz. In 2007 he was selected by the Wooloo Independent Curator Program for the Urban Space project which included sharing his work at exhibitions at the New Life Shop Gallery in Berlin, at OI Futuro, Rio de Janeiro, and at FotoPub International Photo Festival in Slovenia. In October 2013, Ramadinha participated in the collective of Brazilian artists “Brazil am Main” at Galerie Söffing, in Frankfurt, Germany, held during the Frankfurt Book Fair, which featured Brazil as its honored country. He is one of the editors of the electronic visual arts magazine Verbete.art.

In 2015 Ramadinha founded and became the Director of Espaço Foto Contemporânea, a space dedicated to courses and workshops focusing on photography, contemporary art, and images. He has taught courses in photography, photographic language, and coordinated creation and development projects in contemporary photography for institutions such as POP – Contemporary Thought Pole, Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo – MAM SP, Itaú Bba, among others.

He has four books: About Memories and Dreams (2015), About the Delicacy of Things (2015), Angra dos Reis (2014) and Aquilo que Habita em Mim (2012). He is also featured in collective publications such as Rio Mar Lisboa Rio (2015) released by Barléu and The Creation of the World – Contemporary Brazilian Photography (2010), produced and curated by Eder Chiodetto.

Ramadinha’s works are held in private collections around the globe, including the Joaquim Paiva Collection (MAM-RJ), Beto Silva Collection, Julia and Luiz Porchat Collection, Milton Abirached Collection, and the Márcia and Eduardo Lopes Pontes Collection among many others.

His work can be found online at www.ramadinha.com.br.
 

Image: Leonardo Ramadinha, Last Party, 2020–21. Screenshot. Courtesy of the artist.