Experiencing Interruptions?

Terra Firma

Terra Firma is the return to the farm in Brazil where Couto grew up, accompanied by the two men who built it, now in their late seventies and nineties. Like her, both men carried thirty years of absence. Terra Firma explores displacement, ecology and memory. The artist captured the friendship between the two men, their mutual shared stories and the changes in the landscape.

  • Simone Couto
    Director
  • Simone Couto
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Terra Firma
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 17 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Brazil
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Momenta Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
    August 15, 2014
    North American premiere
  • PioneerWorks Center for the Arts and Innovation
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
    August 15, 2014
  • LODO Festival
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    November 16, 2015
    South American premiere
Distribution Information
  • Rhodium Productions
    Country: United States
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Simone Couto

Simone Couto is an interdisciplinary artist born in Brazil in 1975 and moved to the United States when she was 22. She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She is based in New York.

Couto's visual and performative work has been exhibited in the US, Brazil, South Korea, and Argentina such as in Museums (BioArt Seoul | Gwacheon National Science Museum, Korea, Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA, 2013), galleries (Momenta Art, 2014, Glasshouse, 2014), the Embassy of Mexico in DC (2012), in Art fairs (Governor's Island Art Fair Exhibition, 2011), in cultural centers in the USA (PioneerWorks Center for the Arts, 2014, Invisible Dog Art Center, 2013, Electronic Arts Intermix, 2013), festivals (Dumbo Arts Festival, NY, 2010), Judson Memorial Church, El Museo De Los Sures, Brooklyn, NY, 2015). In 2013, she was a recipient of a selective residence in Italy, followed by a public installation-performance inside one of the monuments of world heritage city, preserved by UNESCO, the Well of Matera, in Matera. Her poetry has been published in Brazil. In 2007 and 2009, she was selected as a writer by the International Literature Festival of Paraty (FLIP) to participate in the festival.

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Director Statement

My latest works is about my engagement with remote landscapes. I turn the experience into videos and multimedia installations in traditional as well as unusual spaces such as schools, observatories, churches, and landmarks. These projects explore the intersection between art, philosophy, sociology, science, and literature. In my works, it is possible to rethink the relationship between place and humans as knowledge devices in the construction and reconstruction of one's identity and sense of belonging.