Museum of letters, by Fabio Morais, is part of the research developed by the artist in Paris, at Cité dês Arts, in the first semester of 2005. There, Morais photographed the stem of the trees that stay right between Museum of Louvre and Museum D’Orsay. On the stem one can see letters, signs and phrases left behind by the peasants. According to the artist, this alley, made of tattooed trees, functions as an open air museum where calligraphies, alphabets and different idioms are stored and that continuously grows as names and phrases are written on the stems. Trying to capture this situation in a reliable way, the artist printed these images on wood, creating an analogy between image and its support, between the real and the representation.
Is there a book that you would share with the Word?
With this question, Marilá Dardot invites the public to take part of her installation called The Library of Babel. Since two months the artist asks people to lend books that they consider necessary in any library. The idea was to create a provisory collection of books which will be stamped and available during the exhibition time. Other books can also be added to this library during the period of the exhibition, among them, on the first floor of the gallery, the public can also see other works created by Dardot, like “Insone” (2005), and the videos “I would prefer yes” (2005) and “If I had land under my feet” (2004). After the end of The library of Babel, all the books are going to be sent back to the owners.
Galeria Vermelho is pleased to announce the exhibition Cabra Criada by Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg, their first solo show on a gallery in Brazil.
Since 1993, Dias & Riedweg work together on projects that they call “Arte Pública”, mixing their experiences and doubts with interactive works on Visual Art and Performance. Through their video installation, Dias & Riedweg try to develop artistic experiences where the public plays the main role.
Assembled in Cabra Criada are three video installations, one single-channel video and one suite of photographys.
Commissioned by the Museum de Arte Contemporânea of Barcelona (MALBA), “Voracidade Máxima” (Maximum voracity), 2003, shows interviews with male prostitutes from the streets of Barcelona, called chaperos. The work explores the tensions created by money, power and desire in the complex relationship between economy and sexuality in prostitution. The artists want to display tensions and conflicts “without coming to any calming conclusions, without easing off restlessness, while avoiding banality and control”. Simultaneously to the video installation, “Diary of Maximum voracity”, (2004), a suite of twelve photos, combines the texts and images from the interviews. The video installation “Flesh” (2005), is composed of two huge screens made of a material that holds the image for a little while before it fades. On this work, Dias & Riedweg combined images of animal sacrifices for the Baihran Festival in Cairo, Egypt, with ones of a Swiss abattoir as animal bodies are “slaughtered, decapitated, and eviscerated with the relentless precision and economy of industrial mass production”. On the single-channel “David & Gustav”, (2005), Dias & Riedweg interviewed the artists Gustav Metzger and David Medalla, both with a migrant background, in order to question the idea of exile. On the video installation “Throw” (2004), created for the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Helsinki (KIASMA), pedestrians were invited to throw any object on a piece of glass. Behind it, a camera recorded these actions that, according to the artists, might represent “the every day rebellion of the little man”.
Galeria Vermelho presents, from September 23rd to October 15th, 2005, the solo exhibition of the Chelpa Ferro group.
Created by visual artists Jorge Barrão, Luiz Zerbini and Sergio Mekler, in 1995, Chelpa Ferro, which is currently participating in the 51st Venice Biennale, in Italy, will present four works at Galeria Vermelho.
Electrical cables, drum cymbals, microphones, speakers. The main feature of Chelpa Ferro‘s new exhibition, at Galeria Vermelho, is the use that the group gives to objects that, when removed from their usual locations, gain new meanings, reverberating through the space without, however, losing their original materiality. The two installations that make up the exhibition work with this idea. The first is made up of 18 drum cymbals of different sizes, 18 different speakers, 18 metal rods, CD players and timers. Each drum cymbal is mounted next to a metal rod that, when activated by the timer, rotates causing a continuous and distinct metallic sound due to the size and different qualities of metal. The second is made up of four objects created from tangles of electrical cables. In addition to these works, the group is preparing a new video that will be presented in the gallery’s recently opened video room.
Galeria Vermelho presents Grave by Amílcar Packer.
The body and its relationships with space, a recurring issue in Amílcar Packer’s work, appears in the two new videos and in the three photos that the artist presents on the upper floor of the gallery. Continuing his research, Packer portrays his own body in domestic spaces, revealing situations where the gaze, in general, is not directed. As is his procedure, the works are the result of the artist’s performance, captured on video and subsequently photographed.
On the ground floor, Marco Paulo Rolla presents Movimentos Leves [Light Movements], an exhibition composed of three works that are part of his recent production. “Ecstasy”, a clay sculpture of a woman’s body, refers to the religious ecstasies of Saint Teresa D’ávila and Blessed Lodovica Albertoni, created by Bernini at the height of the Mannerist period.
“Travesseiro”, a soapstone sculpture, works with the idea of disappearance and the suggestion of a presence of the body. In the video “Movimentos Leves”, Rolla records the movement made by the Sun, for five minutes, from the crack of a window, moving over objects, reminiscent of the still life genre.
“O Negativo”, a photo that served as a stimulus for the three new series that photographer Rafael Assef will present in his exhibition, reveals, through an open cut on the skin, previous cuts, a recurring theme in the artist’s repertoire.
The “Peles Negras” series refers to the idea of identification, that is, of the portrait. The tattoo acts as a second covering on the skin, used to create another identity. In the “Gelatinas” series, the photographer creates, from the organic element, geometric figures that refer to the Polaroid SX-70 format, superimposing 3 colors generating black. In “Lâminas”, Assef photographs three kitchen knives from different places, a rotisserie, a restaurant and a bakery, which refer to three distinct social layers.
Galeria Vermelho presents the solo exhibition Sala dos Espelhos [Room of Mirrors] by Courtney Smith.
Courtney Smith presents 4 wooden sculptures and a series of printed texts made from phrases taken from old tales. The collection of individual phrases forms a fixed universe that works like a kit for putting together new narratives. Sculptures work the same way. Each work has as its starting point the furniture which, as an object, refers as much to the human figure that uses it as it does to the architecture that contains it. The mutable piece of furniture, the mutant piece of furniture: the sculpture takes advantage of the information obtained from the original object, whether literally, in the reconfiguration of its physical body, or simply in the use of its concept. As in the texts, the sculptures are constructions made with reconstituted fragments pointing to a new logic.
Vermelho presents Maio [May], solo shows of Nicolás Robbio and Rogério Canella.
The artists divided the gallery in two levels, inferior and superior. With their works, they turn visible what is normally veiled, amplifying details and revealing spaces.
Nicolás Robbio presents new drawings, on paper, cardboard, t-shirts and the gallery walls. With elements and material of our everyday lives, simple lines and cuts, Nicolas creates drawings or explores printed material. The artist incorporates an aura of truth by using technical drawing codes. However, the magnified information blocks the object, are incomplete and not exact. Cuts reveal textures on contents of graphic industrial elements.
Nicolás Robbio, Argentine living in Brazil since 2001, presented this year a solo show at Firstsite in Colchester – England and has participated in several shows in Brazil and abroad, such as “Imagética” in Curitiba, “Desenhos: A-Z” on Ilha da Madeira, Portugal, and Bienal Nacional de Arte Jovem of Mar Del Plata, Argentina.
Closed subways, buildings under construction, building sites, demolition sites…these are some images that compose the photography exhibition of Rogério Canella. The images show transforming spaces, to question the idea of a photograph that is the register of one moment. The artist makes an objective register of a pause in the using of these public spaces.
Among the shows Rogério Canella has participated are FotoArte de Brasília, “Pampulha: Obra Colecionada” at the Museu da Pampulha in Belo Horizonte, “1º Mostra Rio Arte Contemporânea” at the Museu de Arte Moderna of Rio de Janeiro and “Estratégias Barrocas” at the Centro Cultural Metropolitano in Quito, Equador
Galeria Vermelho presents Viés [Bias], group show curated by Ricardo Oliveros.
Viés relates art and fashion, and has been conceived for over one year of weekly meetings, to discuss the possibilities and intersections of both languages.
The idea of gathering people to think about fashion at Galeria Vermelho came on 2003, with the Vizinhos [Neighbours] exhibition, where fashion designers presented performances. In 2004, Karlla Girotto presented her winter collection at the gallery, questioning the structure and time of presenting a collection. These actions were the leit motiv to gather a group to continue the debate, that has started in the end of the XIX century when clothes become artistic expression.
Viés shows art that talks about fashion and fashion that talks about art. If in the 80’s fashion was officially recognized as a cultural expression, according to Folrence Müller’s text Art & Fashion, in Brazil it wasn’t different. Helio Oiticica’s Parangolés, Lygia Clark, Leonilson and Leda Catunda have used several codes form the fashion world.
The group of artists, stylists and designers will show performances, videos, sculptures, photographies…The participants are: Adriano Costa, Amilcar Packer, Andrezza Valentin, Cris Bierrenbach, Edilaine Cunha, Edouard Fraipont, Eliana Bordin, Erika Ikezili, Eva Joory, Fabia Bercsek, Flavia Lhacer, Hugo Frasa, Julia Rodrigues, Karlla Girotto, Marcelo Cidade, Marcio Banfi, Marco Paulo Rolla, Marilá Dardot, Marton, Maurício Ianês, Nicolás Robbio, Odires Mlászho, Paula Trope, Rafael Assef, Rita Wainer, Rosanna Monnerat and Simone Mina.
Galeria Vermelho presents, from March 15th to April 9th, 2005, the exhibition Utilidades Domésticas [Domestic Utilities], by artist Marcelo Zocchio.
In the exhibition, the artist presents the series that gives the exhibition its name, Utilidades Domésticas [Domestic Utilities], which records, through photography, the process of manufacturing the objects and furniture that Zocchio produces with reused wood.
Galeria Vermelho presents, from March 15th to March 20th, 2005, the collective exhibition of the group JAMAC (Jardim Miriam Arte Clube), created by the artist Mônica Nador.
A non-profit civil association, JAMAC is made up of artists, intellectuals and residents of Jardim Miriam (SP), and constitutes a nucleus that generates artistic actions that generate concrete benefits for the residents of the neighborhood, from improving housing to teaching crafts.
Using the transformative potential of art, JAMAC promotes the expansion of participants’ worldview, developing critical awareness and working on their notion of citizenship.
Claudia Andujar presents Yano-a. The artist shows a recent work, a video installation in collaboration with the artist duo Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima, where a projected black and white photograph gains movement in color. From a sequence of frames from the 70s that record a hollow on fire, the artist superimposes a lively, colorful fire in action on the static image of the hollow. A photograph of a mortuary ritual using infrared film completes the exhibition. With this exhibition, Claudia Andujar revives the discussion on indigenous issues and their artistic production.
Chiara Banfi presents Viga Mestra, an exhibition on the upper floor of the gallery, an installation made up of adhesive vinyl and wood. The artist creates from the architectural structure of the space, deconstructing geometric rigidity with the use of organic shapes and lines. The roof beam line is stretched to wrap around the room, creating a new path for the viewer and an imbalance for the environment. A sound environment was developed for this space, in partnership with the duo Mínima.
This is the artist’s first exhibition after returning from her residency at Gasworks, in London. This residency was awarded first place in the Chamex Young Art Prize, at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, in 2004. Chiara also exhibited at Espaço ECCO in Brasília, among others.