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The Renaissance-style space of Capella MACBA will host the presentation of the video Ebb&Flow. A Onda Traz, O Vento Leva, by Brazilian artist Gabriel Mascaro (Recife, Brazil, 1981), the winner of the 2011 ArtAids Foundation Grant for audiovisual production. This work does not take a conventional approach to the issue of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but goes much further, avoiding visions that simply focus on the pathological aspects of the illness. Mascaro chooses a much more intimate approach, offering an insight into the everyday life of a young deaf man and the communication difficulties that faces day after day.

Rodrigo, the protagonist of this 28-minute video, is a young deaf man from Recife, in northeastern Brazil. When his wife walks out on him, he must face the challenge of raising his four-year old daughter on his own. Rodrigo lives with his mother and works installing car stereos in a small dealership on the outskirts of the city. In spite of his deafness, he perceives vibrations, feels them and lets the beat pulse though his veins.
His story raises questions and complexities that reveal his desire and also his vulnerability. But in spite of the silences that prevail in the Rodrigo’s life, his strength and vitality manage to break through this deprivation.

The ArtAids Foundation presents the film with the collaboration of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) as part of the Screen from Barcelona programme. It will then be presented in Vigo (MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporànea) and Madrid (La Casa Encendida). The Barcelona-based ArtAids Foundation is a non-profit organisation created in 2006 by the Dutch writer and art collector Han Nefkens, who, in his fight against AIDS, invites leading artists to create new works that help to overcome the stigma linked to the illness. ArtAids works in the spheres of culture, education and public health.

Produced by: Art Aids. With the collaboration of: Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)