Gisela Motta & Leandro Lima: Remote Control

Remote Control is the apparatus used daily to change TV channels, but also refers to the act of being controlled remotely. In the installation Controle Remoto (Remote Control (2016)) by Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, all the inhabitants of a bird house condominium are connected to TV sets, receiving the content transmitted by telecommunications companies. This situation makes an analogy to everyday life, where much of the knowledge (or versions of knowledge) is received by the television, making mention to the control exercised by the media.

In the installation, 30 bird houses, shaped and arranged following a Brazilian popular residential neighborhood design – containing in each house a device that emulates the stimulus of a TV set – present a selection of varying sound excerpts from programs that were aired in the last 30 years in the Brazilian broadcast television, mixing fast entertainment with great historical and political events.