A Coalition of Abilities

Pedro Cabrita Reis (born 1956, Lisbon, Portugal) is one of the leading Portuguese artists of his generation. For the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) Reis fabricated a complex installation incorporating painting, sculpture, photography and found objects as his contribution to the Collateral Events programme. A Remote Whisper spread through all the rooms of the 700 square metres of the ‘piano nobile’ of the Palazzo Falier, interacting with the walls, doorways and floors, deploying aluminium tubes, fluorescent lights and electrical cables as elements in a complex three-dimensional drawing. Richard Dyer met and interviewed Reis in the Palazzo Falier.