Plan 9 from Outer Space 3.1 (Twin Turbo) is an exhibition that takes its name from a 1957 film by American filmmaker Ed Wood. Characterised by an unusual plot and a peculiar mash-up of characters, the film adopts an experimental approach based on the ideas of layering and falsification, creating a parody of the film industry of the time.
Invoking the spirit of this director and the film that became known as the worst in cinema history, the exhibition embraces a singular imaginary grounded in the right to difference and freedom. With a provocative sensibility that observes the anxieties of the human condition, the exhibition celebrates a space of emancipation and disarray, in an environment that oscillates between references to science fiction and late-nineteenth-century illusionist spectacles.
The works by artists Alice Dittmar, Carla Cabanas, João Onofre, Jonathan Sullam, Jorge Queiroz, Pedro Gomes, Raquel Melgue and Stella Geppert foster cross-connections between clairvoyance and artifice, blurring the boundary between reality and fiction. Likewise, by bringing together ideas of craftsmanship and staging, the works question the rigour, clarity and factuality of scientific knowledge, drawing a parallel between the realm of individual aspirations and anxieties (projected into the head and the heart) and that of collective aspirations and anxieties (projected into the future, or into the expanse of the starry sky).
The exhibition is conceived as a journey through a series of interconnected rooms, simultaneously revolving around an ascent into the celestial realm, within the sphere of the collective imagination, and a descent into the intimate sphere, within the realm of personal experience.