Autonomous Acts provided the framework for a series of performances focused on artist projects that tried to redefine the perception of everyday reality and aesthetic experience.

Pedro Lagoa’s idea for the project had its roots in parties where vinyl records were smashed to pieces. However, it must soon have dawned on the young industrial music fans, the punk and heavy metal guys, who the artist met in this context, that vinyl records were too valuable to be turned into scrap.
This unwillingness to make sacrifices is reminiscent of Georges Bataille’s notion of the gift which is closely related to the idea of giving something up. According to Bataille, a “potlatch” poses a fundamental challenge to the necessity of rational capitalist economic systems. It may be somewhat far-fetched to read Lagoa’s work as calling capitalist economy into question; however, the record-smashing party refers to our individual patterns of behavior with regard to materiality and the possibilities of destruction and potential recycling. The idea of destruction that runs through Lagoa’s work implies that for him this means that something may originate, or be created, from these very circumstances.