Joao Penalva: The White Nightingale

Born in 1949 in Lisbon, Portugal, João Penalva has lived and worked in London since 1976. Initially having studied as a painter, he has, since the 1990s incorporated numerous other approaches and media into his practice. Many of these would not usually be associated with visual art, namely music, dance, writing and the organisation of various archives. Penalva's work is concerned with ideas of translation – and perhaps more aptly - mistranslation. In his work, the line between fact and fiction is often blurred as his films draw on aspects of documentary, cinéma vérité and memory.

Penalva has produced the film from his forensic-like exploration of the bed of the River Avon under Clifton Suspension Bridge. A beautiful and breath-taking piece of engineering, the bridge is an icon of Bristol 's cityscape and the subject of many stories and myths. Penalva's dream-like journey draws on documentary footage to construct a fiction and to conjure fantastical places. What began as an exploration of the mud-banks and the bed of the River Avon, becomes a mythical tale of quest and wonder.

Co-commissioned by Picture This and funded by Arts Council England, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and South West Screen.

Exhibition: 21 May - 3 July 2005

www.thinkingoftheoutside.com