At the invitation of the Make/Sense PhD programme at HGK Basel, Brazilian artist and PhD candidate Ludgi Porto will be a guest in the residency programme ‘HGK Basel @ Atelier Mondial’ from 30 March to 12 April 2026.
At the invitation of the Make/Sense PhD programme at HGK Basel, Brazilian artist and PhD candidate Ludgi Porto will be a guest in the residency programme ‘HGK Basel @ Atelier Mondial’ from 30 March to 12 April 2026.
Ludgi Porto is an artist and PhD candidate in the Make/Sense programme, where she is supervised by Prof. Dr Ines Kleesattel, Head of Research at the Institute of Arts and Design Education (IADE) at HGK Basel.
Ludgi Porto’s PhD project ‘Relational Bodies: Possession and Exorcism in Artistic Practice’ explores the spectrum between exorcism, possession and artistic practices, focusing on the artist Lygia Clark and Macumba rituals from Brazil. It explores the extent to which Macumba may have influenced Lygia Clark’s therapeutic work in performance art.
Central to the approach are the concepts of "decolonizing the unconscious," based on Suely Rolnik's work, and Macumba as a set of spiritual practices that foster a connection between humans and the enchanted invisible lives, as presented by Luiz Antonio Simas. The project seeks to blend and complicate these definitions through artistic practices that incorporate exorcism, possession, psychotherapy, and voice as a key element in ritualistic expression.
Ludgi Porto earned her MFA in Performance from ABK Stuttgart (2023, with a DAAD grant), studied at Kunstakademie Münster (2019, DAAD grant), and also participated in an exchange at Rutgers University (2013, CAPES grant). She was awarded the DAAD-Preis (2021) and a Deutschlandstipendium (2022), as well as PROAC funding in São Paulo, Brazil (2016).
Her work has been featured in projects at Theater Rampe Stuttgart (2023) and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2021), and she was nominated for the EDP Arts Prize at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in 2018. With extensive teaching experience, Ludgi has worked at SESC Brazil (2017–2019), lectured at UNESP (2016–2018), and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2021–2023).
The Make/Sense PhD programme at HGK Basel hosts supervisors and PhD researchers from the University of Arts Linz as part of the “HGK Basel @ Atelier Mondial” residency programme. The residency is intended to strengthen ongoing academic exchange and to facilitate the development of joint research, exhibition, publication, and event projects.
