Loco'Motive
The Iron Horse
by Custom Circus
Presentation
In partnership with the Foundation of the National Railway Museum, the Entroncamento City Hall, the Oeiras City Hall, the Infrastructures of Portugal, among many other institutions and companies, this next artistic adventure from the company Custom Circus will bring an incredible locomotive to Oeiras 1903 Borsig steam to integrate it in a sculptural installation located at the entrance of Nirvana Studios - The Alternative Cultural Center, in order to remain visually available to all users of the historic Military Road.
Message
The approximately seventy tons of art in Loco'motive will be dedicated mainly to Motorcyclists; because in the 19th century, the steam locomotive emerged as the first motorized vehicle, deserving the name of Iron Horse; but decades later it was the motorcycle that embodied that title. Thus, in this artistic installation, Custom Circus will capture, through their post-apocalyptic aesthetics, the moment when the Motorcyclist came to symbolize freedom on wheels.
Concept and Aesthetics
Connecting industrial archeology with the Steampunk imagery, the work Loco'motive will definitely integrate the outdoor gallery of Nirvana Studios; a vast collection that provides visitors, free of charge, 365 days a year, in person or digitally viewing over ninety pieces made by the company, from its shows, tours, scenarios, videos and exhibitions.
Conceptually, the installation will have the plastic objective of symbolically circumventing the high current state of degradation of the locomotive that no longer allows any museological recovery. However, in a more dreamy archaeological-industrial perspective, this majestic machine from other times will be interconnected with the speculative, performative and literary fiction of the Custom Circus; which will make it possible to prolong the life of this old machine indefinitely.
Properly framed in an artistic community, protected and exposed in a panoramic way, this central element of the industrial revolution will be a three-dimensional work that will enchant several generations, with its legacy from our past from the coal era.
To date, this locomotive has been one of the protagonists of the second book in the Custom Circus series "Raus Human", and of the theme "Pagan Vice" of the original soundtrack for the show Absurdium. Soon, it will play the main role in the television recording Loco'motive, a documentary made by the production company Action 300 that will accompany all stages of this adventure, until the culmination of the inaugural event that will be programmed in partnership with the Municipality of Oeiras.
Curatorship
The important curatorial mission will be carried out by Silvana Bessone, a prominent representative of the national museological sphere and director of the National Coach Museum; an unavoidable cultural pole that has already presented the art of Custom Circus to the public for a long time, and that will soon include in its collection a futuristic retro work by this company.