Prologue
19/08/2019
São Paulo, 11 AM
Burnout is something akin to engines overheating engines that cease to function.
19/08/2019
São Paulo, 4 PM
The day turned into night.
An immense cloud of smoke covered the sky until a murky rain of soot fell. Caused by a wildfire in the Amazon, the cloud traveled 3,800 kilometers until it reached São Paulo. A scientist said in the newspaper that this only happens with volcanic eruptions, although there are no volcanoes in Brazil.
—
In her second solo exhibition at Vermelho, Clara Ianni presents developments from her research initiated in 2022 on the relationship between capitalism and religion. The research delves into the modern myth of the separation between humanity and nature, its roots in capitalist expansion and colonial extraction, addressing two contemporary depletions, the human and the environmental, and proposes an exercise in imagining how to live beyond them: How to regenerate? How to resurrect?
Throughout the ground floor of the exhibition, from the entrance to Room 1, Tapete [Carpet] is an ephemeral memorial, inspired by Catholic Corpus Christi processions. Stemming from a tradition initiated during the Portuguese colonization period, the holiday is marked by the creation of sawdust carpets that color the streets and avenues of various Brazilian cities. With different colors, the carpets are made with designs of biblical scenes, flowers, devotional objects, and often feature local images and messages. The carpets, after being drawn and prepared for days, are dismantled as the processions pass over them.
In Clara Ianni’s work, the carpet features a large drawing of a hybrid flower, which only reveals itself when entering Room 1, the gallery´s white cube and a space traditionally revered in art. The drawing originates from the combination of two halves: on one side, the image of the Brazilwood flower cut in half and opened was taken from a botanical encyclopedia; and, on the other, a derivation of this drawing was generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software, a tool used in the artist’s daily work.
Tapete brings one of the formative elements of what is now known as Brazil, the plant that gave it its name and which, due to its extraction for the production of red dye, was once declared extinct, alongside an image generated by corporate software that recombines images produced by users on a large scale, much like commodities. In this intersection, Tapete traces a connection with both past and present extractivism, questions the nature–culture divide, and proposes a celebration of the interdependence between humanity and its surroundings in the reproduction of life.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in a series of observational drawings, Union(União/Sindicato). Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil´s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings on small canvases. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations. Union(União/Sindicato) brings together three conventions of natural representation (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, the body, and machines) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Time then, becomes an important factor in Second Nature: the time that unravels the carpet; the time the seed needs to develop into a flower; and, the accelerated time of technological development and deceleration.
It is within this context that What time is it? is situated, a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
Clara Ianni returns, then, to the beginning with Second Nature, a video that gives title to the exhibition. The video is crafted from the story of Eden, which appears in the book of Genesis, the first chapter of the Bible, where a primordial man emerges as an exceptional being, separated from his surroundings, and who must “subdue the earth” and “rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the creatures that move along the ground.” Thus, humanity is separated from the means of reproducing its own life and, to survive, must subjugate its environment and submit to this separation.
In Ianni’s film, shot inside the Lutheran Church of Maastricht (The Netherlands), we see this story told from within the symbolic territory of this estrangement. We witness the story changing as nature penetrates this space, first as a suggestion, a premonition that insinuates itself through the stained-glass windows of the church, until its windows are opened, allowing nature to invade and dominate the very structure of the dissemination of the word that inhibits life: the pulpit.
Over the past 15 years, Clara Ianni has worked around the relationship between politics, history in the context of late capitalism in Brazil, reflecting on the myth of modernization and its connections with colonialism, imperialism, and violence. In recent years, the artist has worked around the idea of political imagination, in the face of the instrumentalization of fear as a paralyzing device.
Thus, the exhibition concludes at its beginning, on the facade of the gallery, where the mural Inverted Apocalypse shows an image found in an evangelization book where it reads “Brazil and the Apocalypse.” Applied upside down to the facade, the image will be gradually constructed throughout the exhibition period through the performance “Work after 6 PM,” where Ianni will chisel away at the large entrance wall of Vermelho, through which hundreds of projects have passed, in pursuit of the pictorial construction of the inverted image. The work plays with the end of the world as a tool to block imagination, through fear, and as a possibility of reinvention. The work is then completed at the end of the exhibition. Or not.
Vermelho began representing Clara Ianni in 2013, after she had participated in Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial), curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Jens Hoffmann. This participation consolidated a trajectory marked by important participations in institutional exhibitions such as the 33rd Panorama of Brazilian Art at the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (2013), the 31st São Paulo Biennial (2014); Fire and Forget. On Violence at Kunst-Werke – Berlin (2015); X Berlin Biennale (2018); Feminist Histories at MASP in São Paulo (2018); 21st Sesc Videobrasil Biennial (2019); 34th São Paulo Biennial (2021); Soft Water Hard Stone: 2021 New Museum Triennial (2021).
incisions and wear on wall
Photo Filipe Berndt
The mural shows an image found in an evangelization book where it reads “Brazil and the Apocalypse.” Applied upside down to the facade, the image will be gradually constructed throughout the exhibition period through the performance Work after 6 PM, where Ianni will chisel away at the large entrance wall of Vermelho, through which hundreds of projects have passed, in pursuit of the pictorial construction of the inverted image. The work plays with the end of the world as a tool to block imagination, through fear, and as a possibility of reinvention. The work is then completed at the end of the exhibition. Or not.
The mural shows an image found in an evangelization book where it reads “Brazil and the Apocalypse.” Applied upside down to the facade, the image will be gradually constructed throughout the exhibition period through the performance Work after 6 PM, where Ianni will chisel away at the large entrance wall of Vermelho, through which hundreds of projects have passed, in pursuit of the pictorial construction of the inverted image. The work plays with the end of the world as a tool to block imagination, through fear, and as a possibility of reinvention. The work is then completed at the end of the exhibition. Or not.
Photo Daniel Mello
Pagode na Lata performed in the gallery´s courtyard on opening day. The collective is comprised of former workers from social assistance and healthcare services in Cracolândia (São Paulo´s skid row) who view samba as a tool for harm reduction and solidarity economy as a practice of autonomy.
Pagode na Lata, in its current lineup, consists of Raphael Escobar, Leonardo Lindolfo, Jair Junior “Racionais”, Marquinho Maia, Robson Correia “Favela”, Gustavo Luizon, Marcos Cesário “Pirata”, Raul Zito, Átila Fragozo, Caca Pinheiro, and Jurandir Emídio.
Pagode na Lata performed in the gallery´s courtyard on opening day. The collective is comprised of former workers from social assistance and healthcare services in Cracolândia (São Paulo´s skid row) who view samba as a tool for harm reduction and solidarity economy as a practice of autonomy.
Pagode na Lata, in its current lineup, consists of Raphael Escobar, Leonardo Lindolfo, Jair Junior “Racionais”, Marquinho Maia, Robson Correia “Favela”, Gustavo Luizon, Marcos Cesário “Pirata”, Raul Zito, Átila Fragozo, Caca Pinheiro, and Jurandir Emídio.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Photo Filipe Berndt
Digital wristwatches and perforated rocks
Photo Filipe Berndt
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
graphite and oil pastel on paper
Photo Filipe Berndt
Dyed sawdust
Photo Filipe Berndt
Tapete [Carpet] is an ephemeral memorial, inspired by Catholic Corpus Christi processions. Stemming from a tradition initiated during the Portuguese colonization period, the holiday is marked by the creation of sawdust carpets that color the streets of various Brazilian cities. The carpets are made with designs of biblical scenes, flowers, devotional objects, and often feature local images and messages. The carpets, after being drawn and prepared for days, are dismantled as the processions pass over them.
In Clara Ianni’s work, the carpet features a large drawing of a hybrid flower. The drawing originates from the combination of two halves: on one side, the image of the Brazilwood flower cut in half was taken from a botanical encyclopedia; on the other, a derivation of this drawing was generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. Tapete brings one of the formative elements of what is now known as Brazil, the plant that gave it its name and which, due to its extraction for the production of red dye, was once declared extinct, alongside an image generated by corporate software that recombines images produced by users on a large scale, much like commodities. In this intersection, Tapete traces a connection with both past and present extractivism, questions the nature–culture divide, and proposes a celebration of the interdependence between humanity and its surroundings in the reproduction of life.
Tapete [Carpet] is an ephemeral memorial, inspired by Catholic Corpus Christi processions. Stemming from a tradition initiated during the Portuguese colonization period, the holiday is marked by the creation of sawdust carpets that color the streets of various Brazilian cities. The carpets are made with designs of biblical scenes, flowers, devotional objects, and often feature local images and messages. The carpets, after being drawn and prepared for days, are dismantled as the processions pass over them.
In Clara Ianni’s work, the carpet features a large drawing of a hybrid flower. The drawing originates from the combination of two halves: on one side, the image of the Brazilwood flower cut in half was taken from a botanical encyclopedia; on the other, a derivation of this drawing was generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. Tapete brings one of the formative elements of what is now known as Brazil, the plant that gave it its name and which, due to its extraction for the production of red dye, was once declared extinct, alongside an image generated by corporate software that recombines images produced by users on a large scale, much like commodities. In this intersection, Tapete traces a connection with both past and present extractivism, questions the nature–culture divide, and proposes a celebration of the interdependence between humanity and its surroundings in the reproduction of life.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Opened Brazilwood seed
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Brazilwood seed
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Brazilwood closed seed
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Digital wristwatches and perforated rocks
Photo Filipe Berndt
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
Ballpoint pen on paper
Photo Filipe Berndt
Angels is a series of observational drawings. Taken from the earliest maps, encyclopedias, and scientific manuals produced during the colonization of the Americas, the project gathers drawings of angels carrying barrels of goods, rulers, and compasses. Anjos addresses the relationship between economic exploitation, science, and religion.
Angels is a series of observational drawings. Taken from the earliest maps, encyclopedias, and scientific manuals produced during the colonization of the Americas, the project gathers drawings of angels carrying barrels of goods, rulers, and compasses. Anjos addresses the relationship between economic exploitation, science, and religion.
10-cent Brazilian real coin and earth
Photo Filipe Berndt
The work deals with one of the central dynamics of capitalism, accumulation, which takes the existing world as raw material for the accumulation of wealth. Combining abstract and concrete characteristics of these mechanisms, the body of work brings to light historical, political, and social aspects, connecting extractivism to digital-financial exploitation.
The work deals with one of the central dynamics of capitalism, accumulation, which takes the existing world as raw material for the accumulation of wealth. Combining abstract and concrete characteristics of these mechanisms, the body of work brings to light historical, political, and social aspects, connecting extractivism to digital-financial exploitation.
Digital wristwatches and perforated rocks
Photo Filipe Berndt
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
Digital wristwatches and perforated rocks
Photo Filipe Berndt
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
What time is it?, is a series of sculptures that address the relationship between multiple temporalities. Past, present, future, human time, and natural time appear intertwined in rocks that have been drilled to entangle with digital wristwatches. The sculptures create a dialogue between geological time and social time, bringing together different temporal scales.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Sugarcane flower
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Rubber tree flower
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Coffee flower
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Soybean flower
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
Graphite, acrylic primer on canvas
Cotton flower
Photo Filipe Berndt
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
The idea of the reproduction of life and the interdependence between humanity and nature unfolds in this series of observational drawings. Each set in the series starts from a plant sold as a commodity in one of Brazil’s economic cycles, such as coffee, sugarcane, and soybeans. Using an image from a botanical encyclopedia and derivations of this image made by AI software, Ianni reproduces these images with graphite in hand-drawn observational drawings. The canvases are arranged in a manner reminiscent of a grid, taxonomy, or museum classification, but in deviant pathways suggesting unorderly ramifications and hybridizations.
Union (Sindicato) brings together three conventions of representation of nature (encyclopedic, freehand drawing, and AI-generated image) and questions the separation (Earth, body, machine) through the accumulation of digital byproducts, the discard of the contemporary world, the residue. The series occupies two rooms of the exhibition. In Room 1, alongside Tapete, three sets deal with the representation of the Brazilwood flower at different stages: the closed seed, the open seed, and the flower.
full HD video, color and sound
Photo video still
“The modern myth of a universal history spread by Europe appears in Clara Ianni’s Segunda Natureza [Second Nature] (2023), filmed inside the Maastricht Lutheran Church (Netherlands). The artist addresses the notion of capital accumulation (seeds, fibers, minerals…), uniting the themes of land exploitation and the exploitation of human labor. The result of the Christianized world, colonial extraction based its expansion on several separations. The split between (man’s) body and spirit for greater control over Nature stems from Western modernity. The Protestant principle Soli Deo gloria (“Glory to God alone”), by which not even life has meaning outside this order, defines other divisions: between the clergy and common people, and between true devotion and false beliefs. Yet, although the film expresses the yearning for the landscape outside the Church’s windows, it is at least an allusion to possibilities of regeneration through the qualities of interdependence and camaraderie.”
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
“The modern myth of a universal history spread by Europe appears in Clara Ianni’s Segunda Natureza [Second Nature] (2023), filmed inside the Maastricht Lutheran Church (Netherlands). The artist addresses the notion of capital accumulation (seeds, fibers, minerals…), uniting the themes of land exploitation and the exploitation of human labor. The result of the Christianized world, colonial extraction based its expansion on several separations. The split between (man’s) body and spirit for greater control over Nature stems from Western modernity. The Protestant principle Soli Deo gloria (“Glory to God alone”), by which not even life has meaning outside this order, defines other divisions: between the clergy and common people, and between true devotion and false beliefs. Yet, although the film expresses the yearning for the landscape outside the Church’s windows, it is at least an allusion to possibilities of regeneration through the qualities of interdependence and camaraderie.”
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
video, color and sound
Photo video still
“The modern myth of a universal history spread by Europe appears in Clara Ianni’s Segunda Natureza [Second Nature] (2023), filmed inside the Maastricht Lutheran Church (Netherlands). The artist addresses the notion of capital accumulation (seeds, fibers, minerals…), uniting the themes of land exploitation and the exploitation of human labor. The result of the Christianized world, colonial extraction based its expansion on several separations. The split between (man’s) body and spirit for greater control over Nature stems from Western modernity. The Protestant principle Soli Deo gloria (“Glory to God alone”), by which not even life has meaning outside this order, defines other divisions: between the clergy and common people, and between true devotion and false beliefs. Yet, although the film expresses the yearning for the landscape outside the Church’s windows, it is at least an allusion to possibilities of regeneration through the qualities of interdependence and camaraderie.”
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
“The modern myth of a universal history spread by Europe appears in Clara Ianni’s Segunda Natureza [Second Nature] (2023), filmed inside the Maastricht Lutheran Church (Netherlands). The artist addresses the notion of capital accumulation (seeds, fibers, minerals…), uniting the themes of land exploitation and the exploitation of human labor. The result of the Christianized world, colonial extraction based its expansion on several separations. The split between (man’s) body and spirit for greater control over Nature stems from Western modernity. The Protestant principle Soli Deo gloria (“Glory to God alone”), by which not even life has meaning outside this order, defines other divisions: between the clergy and common people, and between true devotion and false beliefs. Yet, although the film expresses the yearning for the landscape outside the Church’s windows, it is at least an allusion to possibilities of regeneration through the qualities of interdependence and camaraderie.”
Excerpt from No Fim da Madrugada, by Lisette Lagnado
Gouache, latex, cardboard and wood
Photo Filipe Berndt
The collection of latex and gouache paintings originates from a compilation of small notes found over the years in books from libraries in São Paulo. Like an observational drawing, the work is created by compiling these annotations made by readers in the margins of books on Brazilian history, literature, sociology, and geography. The combination of these comments, questions, drawings, notes, and children’s scribbles forms a collage, an awareness of space, and the context of the reception of ideas conveyed in the books.
The collection of latex and gouache paintings originates from a compilation of small notes found over the years in books from libraries in São Paulo. Like an observational drawing, the work is created by compiling these annotations made by readers in the margins of books on Brazilian history, literature, sociology, and geography. The combination of these comments, questions, drawings, notes, and children’s scribbles forms a collage, an awareness of space, and the context of the reception of ideas conveyed in the books.
Thiago Martins de Melo occupies the Sala Antonio – Vermelho’s screening room – with two stop-motion animations, Bárbara Balaclava (2016) and Rasga Mortalha (2019).
The films are constructed from a large number of paintings, drawings, and schematics that are photographed and intricately edited, with temporal jumps, fragmentations, and changes of perspectives. In common, the works speak of territory, land protection, and critique the advancement of civilization.
Bárbara Balaclava is a metanarrative based on the main themes present in Thiago Martins de Melo’s work. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid, and cyclical, it traverses the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture, to her experience as an enchanted being, finding herself in a previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama.
Rasga Mortalha draws from the legend of the Suindara owl — widely told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil — to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white silhouette, followed by a wild scream reminiscent of the sound of a cloth being torn in half, heralds death. As a metaphorical vector to think, and also to transcend, a fatalistic view of Brazil’s history, the artist draws from this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with personal memories, references, and imaginations, creating a narrative that is loaded and incisive.
Torrão Rubro benefits from the collaboration of Lima Galeria, which represents Thiago Martins de Mello.
Photo Filipe Berndt
frames from the films Bárbara Balaclava and Rasga Mortalha
Photo Filipe Berndt
frames from the films Bárbara Balaclava and Rasga Mortalha
Photo Filipe Berndt
Photo Filipe Berndt
Oil on canvas, polyester resin and polyurethane, stop-motion animation, and 22” and 32” TV monitors painted with oil paint
Photo Estúdio em obra
Oil paint on canvas
Oil paint on canvas
Photo Filipe Berndt
Stop motion animation film
Photo video still
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Stop motion animation film
Photo video still
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Stop motion animation film
Photo 14’56”
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Bárbara balaclava is a metanarrative based on the existing stories in the work of Thiago Martins de Melo and is read through the Tarot. Cosmogonic, baroque, hybrid and cyclic, traces the trajectory of an anonymous martyr from the expropriation and massacre of her village and her death under police torture to her experience as “enchanted” finding herself in previous incarnation and culminating in her baptism in the heart of Pindorama. Bárbara balaclava is na anarcho-shamanic narrative of transcendence of the anti-colonialist struggle.
Photo Filipe Berndt
Stop motion animation film
Photo video still
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
Photo Filipe Berndt
Stop motion animation film
Photo video still
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
Stop motion animation film
Photo video still
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
“Rasga Mortalha” comes from the legend of the owl “Suindara” – much told in the folklore of the North and Northeast of Brazil – to address the socio-political urgencies of the country. It is believed that the appearance of its white figure, followed by the wild cry – which resembles the sound of a cloth being torn in half – carries with it the sign of death. As a metaphorical vector for thinking, and also transcending, a fatalistic view of Brazilian history, the artist uses this popular tradition to cross centuries of public events with memories, references and personal imaginations, creating a charged and sharp narrative.
Photo Filipe Berndt
Meia’s practice is grounded in his research around landscape painting, its forms, history, and meanings. Meia’s landscapes begin to take shape through the artist’s movements, whether through his travels along the streets or through his circles of affection. Both circuits equip the artist with materials for the elaboration of his paintings. In the street, he identifies, selects, and collects elements with constructive potential; from his affection, he is presented with elements that carry tonic and symbolic qualities.
His compositions, therefore, are based on grids that detach from rationality, order, and neutrality, to develop from contextual subjectivities, the fragmentation of stories, and hybridism. Although his constructions are based on collages of materials with different intrinsic values, his practice includes classic and noble painting techniques and materials, such as encaustic, oil paint, oil stick, and charcoal. These materials coexist with assemblages of different papers, leathers, fabrics, pieces of towels, epoxy paint, hardware scraps, and felts, all in search of pictorial elaborations.
The themes of his paintings bring this myriad of elements together in the representation of horizons structured by roads. These paths reflect the observer’s journey in search of the multiple stories that make up his scenes.
Acrylic paint, oil paint, encaustic, canvas, thermal canvas, tissue paper, oil pastel, charcoal and white glue on discarded drawer
Photo Filipe Berndt
“Irmãos [brothers] is the name I give to graphic marks that I add to compositions, aiming to distance them from painting and make them something more familiar. They are structural elements of the works that operate in the realm between figuration and abstraction.”
Meia
“Irmãos [brothers] is the name I give to graphic marks that I add to compositions, aiming to distance them from painting and make them something more familiar. They are structural elements of the works that operate in the realm between figuration and abstraction.”
Meia
Acrylic paint, oil paint, dry pastel, oil pastel, masking tape, canvas, voile, satin and cotton on cork, wood and MDF mounted on lath
Photo Filipe Berndt
Oil paint, acrylic paint, oil stick, dry pastel, charcoal, tissue paper, satin, bath towel and encaustic on raw cotton and MDF mounted on wooden batten
Photo Filipe Berndt
Oil paint, acrylic paint, encaustic, oil pastel, dry pastel, charcoal, leather and sheet on discarded drawer
Photo Filipe Berndt
“Irmãos [brothers] is the name I give to graphic marks that I add to compositions, aiming to distance them from painting and make them something more familiar. They are structural elements of the works that operate in the realm between figuration and abstraction.”
Meia
“Irmãos [brothers] is the name I give to graphic marks that I add to compositions, aiming to distance them from painting and make them something more familiar. They are structural elements of the works that operate in the realm between figuration and abstraction.”
Meia
Oil paint, acrylic paint, palm oil, oil pastel, cotton paper, laminated paper, chamois paper, canvas, felt and canvas on wood mounted on a slat
Photo Filipe Berndt
Read the full text by Thais Rivitti here.
Read the full text by Gabriel Zimbardi here.
On March 27th, from 7pm to 10pm, Vermelho opens “Organoide,” a new solo exhibition by Lia Chaia. The exhibition features a critical text by Thaís Rivitti.
“Organoide” presents new works produced between 2020 and 2024, including a video installation, two videos, drawings, and a series of mobiles. During the opening, Chaia will present a mapped projection on Vermelho’s facade.
Lia Chaia is featured in the exhibition “Message from our Planet,” from the Thoma Foundation Collection. The exhibition is part of the Foundation’s Loan Program, which sends artworks to regional and public museums in the USA. The collection focuses on digital art, video, and new media. The exhibition is currently touring the USA, having already visited 6 museums. It is currently at the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin.
Chaia is also participating in the exhibition “Before and Now, Far and Here Inside,” curated by Galciani Neves, at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) in Curitiba, Brazil. This exhibition proposes a reflection on the relationships between body and territory, and the various ways of inhabiting, being, and recording landscapes.
Chaia’s works exploring the insertion of the body into natural and urban landscapes were also featured in the exhibition “Terra abrecaminhos,” which recently ended its display at Sesc Pompéia (São Paulo), curated by Hilda de Paulo.
Chaia is one of the prominent artists of Generation 2000, and her work is present in important collections such as: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil); Inhotim (Brazil); Colección Jozami (Spain); Museum of Modern Art [MAM] (Brazil); Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro [MAMRJ] (Brazil); and Banco do Espírito Santo (Portugal).
enamel paint on mdf and steel cables
Photo Filipe Berndt
The patterns painted by Chaia on the mobiles point to a turn in her practice. The artist is known for her works that explore the insertion of the body into urban and natural landscapes and is one of the names that defined the Generation 2000 in Brazil. This group has an intense focus on the models of urbanization that took place in Modern Brazil, a developmentalist model from the mid XXth century that believed in the logic that the country was destined for a grandiose future, but which never materialized.
Chaia’s paintings, drawings, and videos now turn inward to the body, with abstract patterns that evoke the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, organs, bones, and muscles. Their structures, however, also recall undefined pathways or tribal patterns. Much of this “loose” abstraction came with the use of Chaia’s right hand, which she started to use to work after suffering a bicycle accident that forced her to undergo reconstructive surgery on her left hand, her dominant hand.
The patterns painted by Chaia on the mobiles point to a turn in her practice. The artist is known for her works that explore the insertion of the body into urban and natural landscapes and is one of the names that defined the Generation 2000 in Brazil. This group has an intense focus on the models of urbanization that took place in Modern Brazil, a developmentalist model from the mid XXth century that believed in the logic that the country was destined for a grandiose future, but which never materialized.
Chaia’s paintings, drawings, and videos now turn inward to the body, with abstract patterns that evoke the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, organs, bones, and muscles. Their structures, however, also recall undefined pathways or tribal patterns. Much of this “loose” abstraction came with the use of Chaia’s right hand, which she started to use to work after suffering a bicycle accident that forced her to undergo reconstructive surgery on her left hand, her dominant hand.
enamel paint on mdf and steel cables
Photo Filipe Berndt
The patterns painted by Chaia on the mobiles point to a turn in her practice. The artist is known for her works that explore the insertion of the body into urban and natural landscapes and is one of the names that defined the Generation 2000 in Brazil. This group has an intense focus on the models of urbanization that took place in Modern Brazil, a developmentalist model from the mid XXth century that believed in the logic that the country was destined for a grandiose future, but which never materialized.
Chaia’s paintings, drawings, and videos now turn inward to the body, with abstract patterns that evoke the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, organs, bones, and muscles. Their structures, however, also recall undefined pathways or tribal patterns. Much of this “loose” abstraction came with the use of Chaia’s right hand, which she started to use to work after suffering a bicycle accident that forced her to undergo reconstructive surgery on her left hand, her dominant hand.
The patterns painted by Chaia on the mobiles point to a turn in her practice. The artist is known for her works that explore the insertion of the body into urban and natural landscapes and is one of the names that defined the Generation 2000 in Brazil. This group has an intense focus on the models of urbanization that took place in Modern Brazil, a developmentalist model from the mid XXth century that believed in the logic that the country was destined for a grandiose future, but which never materialized.
Chaia’s paintings, drawings, and videos now turn inward to the body, with abstract patterns that evoke the epidermis, dermis, hypodermis, organs, bones, and muscles. Their structures, however, also recall undefined pathways or tribal patterns. Much of this “loose” abstraction came with the use of Chaia’s right hand, which she started to use to work after suffering a bicycle accident that forced her to undergo reconstructive surgery on her left hand, her dominant hand.
Full HD 16:9 video. Color and sound
Photo video still
Drawing with records a performance for the video camera carried out between Lia Chaia and her daughters. In the protocol, one pair at a time tries to make the same drawing, in a mirrored manner, on opposite pages of a notebook.
Drawing with records a performance for the video camera carried out between Lia Chaia and her daughters. In the protocol, one pair at a time tries to make the same drawing, in a mirrored manner, on opposite pages of a notebook.
Full HD 16:9 video. Color and sound
Photo video still
Drawing with records a performance for the video camera carried out between Lia Chaia and her daughters. In the protocol, one pair at a time tries to make the same drawing, in a mirrored manner, on opposite pages of a notebook.
Drawing with records a performance for the video camera carried out between Lia Chaia and her daughters. In the protocol, one pair at a time tries to make the same drawing, in a mirrored manner, on opposite pages of a notebook.
video on 2 monitors vertically back to back – color and sound
Photo video still
In the video installation, two monitors float in the center of the room, back to back. In the images, we see Chaia’s naked body, upon which drawings are projected and manipulated by two hands. The drawings resemble the patterns of the hands from “Como vai? Como vai? Como vai?” and are structured as arabesques and volutes that twist and turn, as if Chaia’s body could be seen from the inside out.
The installation’s sound reproduces different wind chimes, with sounds of shells, bamboo, and crystals. The wind is the only external element that appears in the exhibition, both in the sound of the “Desenho dançante,” which fills the exhibition rooms, and through the wind itself, which can enter the rooms through screens that the artist used to close the gallery doors.
Collaboration and editing: João Marcos de Almeida
Photography: Flora Dias
Sound: Bruno Palazzo
In the video installation, two monitors float in the center of the room, back to back. In the images, we see Chaia’s naked body, upon which drawings are projected and manipulated by two hands. The drawings resemble the patterns of the hands from “Como vai? Como vai? Como vai?” and are structured as arabesques and volutes that twist and turn, as if Chaia’s body could be seen from the inside out.
The installation’s sound reproduces different wind chimes, with sounds of shells, bamboo, and crystals. The wind is the only external element that appears in the exhibition, both in the sound of the “Desenho dançante,” which fills the exhibition rooms, and through the wind itself, which can enter the rooms through screens that the artist used to close the gallery doors.
Collaboration and editing: João Marcos de Almeida
Photography: Flora Dias
Sound: Bruno Palazzo
video on 2 monitors vertically back to back – color and sound
Photo video still
In the video installation, two monitors float in the center of the room, back to back. In the images, we see Chaia’s naked body, upon which drawings are projected and manipulated by two hands. The drawings resemble the patterns of the hands from “Como vai? Como vai? Como vai?” and are structured as arabesques and volutes that twist and turn, as if Chaia’s body could be seen from the inside out.
The installation’s sound reproduces different wind chimes, with sounds of shells, bamboo, and crystals. The wind is the only external element that appears in the exhibition, both in the sound of the “Desenho dançante,” which fills the exhibition rooms, and through the wind itself, which can enter the rooms through screens that the artist used to close the gallery doors.
Collaboration and editing: João Marcos de Almeida
Photography: Flora Dias
Sound: Bruno Palazzo
In the video installation, two monitors float in the center of the room, back to back. In the images, we see Chaia’s naked body, upon which drawings are projected and manipulated by two hands. The drawings resemble the patterns of the hands from “Como vai? Como vai? Como vai?” and are structured as arabesques and volutes that twist and turn, as if Chaia’s body could be seen from the inside out.
The installation’s sound reproduces different wind chimes, with sounds of shells, bamboo, and crystals. The wind is the only external element that appears in the exhibition, both in the sound of the “Desenho dançante,” which fills the exhibition rooms, and through the wind itself, which can enter the rooms through screens that the artist used to close the gallery doors.
Collaboration and editing: João Marcos de Almeida
Photography: Flora Dias
Sound: Bruno Palazzo
With Henrique Oliveira, Edigar Candido e Dora Nacca
Photo Vermelho
3mm MDF, acrylic base, satin enamel paint and steel wire
Photo Vermelho
The Organoids that give the exhibition its name are hand-painted amoeboid mobiles. Here, they no longer have recognizable shapes, they are organically shaped pieces held together by steel wires, which dance as the wind passes through them. The reconstruction of Lia Chaia’s hand through science led the artist to celebrate the advancement of research that makes natural what is synthetic, or that synthesizes the natural.
The Organoids that give the exhibition its name are hand-painted amoeboid mobiles. Here, they no longer have recognizable shapes, they are organically shaped pieces held together by steel wires, which dance as the wind passes through them. The reconstruction of Lia Chaia’s hand through science led the artist to celebrate the advancement of research that makes natural what is synthetic, or that synthesizes the natural.
3mm MDF, acrylic base, satin enamel paint and steel wire
Photo Vermelho
The Organoids that give the exhibition its name are hand-painted amoeboid mobiles. Here, they no longer have recognizable shapes, they are organically shaped pieces held together by steel wires, which dance as the wind passes through them. The reconstruction of Lia Chaia’s hand through science led the artist to celebrate the advancement of research that makes natural what is synthetic, or that synthesizes the natural.
The Organoids that give the exhibition its name are hand-painted amoeboid mobiles. Here, they no longer have recognizable shapes, they are organically shaped pieces held together by steel wires, which dance as the wind passes through them. The reconstruction of Lia Chaia’s hand through science led the artist to celebrate the advancement of research that makes natural what is synthetic, or that synthesizes the natural.
Posca pen and water-based varnish on Canson paper
Photo Filipe Berndt
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
Posca pen and water-based varnish on Canson paper
Photo Vermelho
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
Posca pen and water-based varnish on Canson paper
Photo Vermelho
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
Posca pen and water-based varnish on Canson paper
Photo Vermelho
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
Posca pen and water-based varnish on Canson paper
Photo Vermelho
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
The woven paper mural creates a wall-device for Lia Chaia’s drawings that were used in the “Dancing Drawing” projection, which join other drawings of various scales and colors. Together, they form a system inspired by a conversation Chaia had during one of her visits to the hospital, when someone talked to her about organoids.
Organoids recreate, in vitro, a physiological system that allows researchers to investigate complex multidimensional issues, such as the onset of diseases, tissue regeneration, and interactions between organs. Organoids are a type of 3D cell culture that contains specific types of organ cells, which can display their spatial organization and replicate some functions of a particular organ.
Video – color and sound
Collaboration and editing: João Marcos de Almeida
Photograph: Flora Dias
Direct sound: Juliana R.
Photo video still
Véu útero is grounded in the use of video as a tool for recording performances, one of Lia Chaia’s recurring practices. In common, these works are based on more intimate performances, where the body is the central axis in the composition.
Véu útero is grounded in the use of video as a tool for recording performances, one of Lia Chaia’s recurring practices. In common, these works are based on more intimate performances, where the body is the central axis in the composition.
Water-based woodcut ink on Canson paper
Photo Vermelho
The drawings carimbo seta [stamp arrow] create continuous and multidirectional flows, as if they were in motion, indicating that the movement of the body and the city is incessant.
The drawings carimbo seta [stamp arrow] create continuous and multidirectional flows, as if they were in motion, indicating that the movement of the body and the city is incessant.
Sakura watercolor on Hahnemühle Harmory Watercolor paper 300g
Photo Filipe Berndt
Lia Chaia works with perceptions and everyday experiences, such as the permanent tension between the body, urban space and nature. Often humorous, her work addresses how the body reacts to the stimuli and disruptions of the contemporary world. A body that adapts to landscapes, that creates relationships with other spaces, objects and people and thus becoming a research territory.
Lia Chaia works with perceptions and everyday experiences, such as the permanent tension between the body, urban space and nature. Often humorous, her work addresses how the body reacts to the stimuli and disruptions of the contemporary world. A body that adapts to landscapes, that creates relationships with other spaces, objects and people and thus becoming a research territory.
The Sala Antonio projection room exhibits the new film by the duo Dias & Riedweg “The Reverse of Heaven,” which had a preview screening during the IX DOBRA – International Experimental Film Festival, in 2023.
“The Reverse of Heaven” was filmed in the Javarí Reserve, an Amazonian region located at the tri-border area between Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. The work focuses on the reversal of individual faith into religion, documenting the conversion methods practiced by some neo-Pentecostal churches, whose actions aim to reach even the last traditional peoples inhabiting the region, who have had no contact with the white man. The video documents the process, which repeats itself for centuries, always financed by extractivism.
According to Dias & Riedweg, “faith is an individual’s power to relate to their existence, but religion can emerge as a colonizing element of that faith.”
This process of colonization through faith establishes a new collective identity. The arrival of these missionaries marks the beginning of the loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture in a new Christian context, without any improvement in the quality of life for these people – on the contrary, allowing diseases to invade the villages. The action of the churches is like a device that diverts attention and justifies the exploitation of traditional territories essential for the survival of these peoples and all life on the globe.
4K video – color and sound
Photo video still
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
4K video – color and sound
Photo video still
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
4K video – color and sound
Photo video still
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
4K video – color and sound
Photo video still
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
Entirely filmed in the Javarí Reserve, in the far west of the Amazon rainforest, on the triple border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia, O Avesso do Céu focuses on the conversion massively practiced by neo-pentecostals churches among the last recently-contacted indigenous peoples on the continent, present in this region, and its serious consequences for the environment.
The process is ancient and has been repeated for centuries: churches receive funds from private and predatory interests to launch evangelization missions among the indigenous people and thus begin the commercial exploitation of the territory, through the illegal extraction of wood, minerals, fauna, fisheries and flora from regions officially demarcated as preserved indigenous reserves. These missions destabilize the natural balance of entire regions and alter or exterminate the modus vivendi of the original inhabitants of these lands.
The camera navigates up the remote Javari River. It starts at a traditional initiation ritual among a Ticuna family in the Alto Solimões, documents a considerably large but illegal wood extraction site on its banks and arrives at the surprisingly recently established christian community of Nova Jerusalém.
The cataclysm we see with the arrival of the missionaries is only the beginning of a total loss of identity and the transformation of indigenous culture into an insane and miserable christian context that, in fact, borders on madness.
“The “Word of God”, spread like a plague by today’s neo-pentecostals, not only “opens paths and moves mountains”, but also eradicates original forms of life and culture. If faith is the power of each individual to relate to their existence, religion emerges as a colonizing element of that faith, manifesting itself as a new territory of altered identity.”
– Dias & Riedweg
analogue photography printed on Kodak Endura paper
Photo reproduction
Hans Staden was born in the region of Kassel in the 16th Century. He was shipwrecked and washed up on the coast of what would soon be Brazil, whereupon he was held captive by Tupinambá Indians for two years. He later published his book Wahrhaftige Historia [true story, in free translation] an illustrated account of this adventure, that was largely responsible for searing the image of the savage, cannibal–infested tropics into the European mind, fuelling a cliché that would be used to legitimize violent colonization.
Following a commissioning for Documenta 12, in 2007, Dias & Riedweg re-enact this universe within the aesthetics of funk carioca, a genuine contemporary cultural expression of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In Kassel, during the Documenta, the work was presented as a three-screen video installation alternated with three mirroring surfaces, which created an octagonal arena that involved viewers in a kind of anthropophagical pot.
Here, Vermelho presents the Woodcut series, where Dias & Riedweg reenact original woodcuts from chapter XXIX of Hans Staden’s book, those that narrate details of the preparation of an anthropophagic banquet. The images were allegorically reconstructed with funkeiros and photographed on a slab barbecue on the top of Santa Marta hill, in Rio de Janeiro.
Hans Staden was born in the region of Kassel in the 16th Century. He was shipwrecked and washed up on the coast of what would soon be Brazil, whereupon he was held captive by Tupinambá Indians for two years. He later published his book Wahrhaftige Historia [true story, in free translation] an illustrated account of this adventure, that was largely responsible for searing the image of the savage, cannibal–infested tropics into the European mind, fuelling a cliché that would be used to legitimize violent colonization.
Following a commissioning for Documenta 12, in 2007, Dias & Riedweg re-enact this universe within the aesthetics of funk carioca, a genuine contemporary cultural expression of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In Kassel, during the Documenta, the work was presented as a three-screen video installation alternated with three mirroring surfaces, which created an octagonal arena that involved viewers in a kind of anthropophagical pot.
Here, Vermelho presents the Woodcut series, where Dias & Riedweg reenact original woodcuts from chapter XXIX of Hans Staden’s book, those that narrate details of the preparation of an anthropophagic banquet. The images were allegorically reconstructed with funkeiros and photographed on a slab barbecue on the top of Santa Marta hill, in Rio de Janeiro.
analogue photography printed on Kodak Endura paper
Photo reproduction
Hans Staden was born in the region of Kassel in the 16th Century. He was shipwrecked and washed up on the coast of what would soon be Brazil, whereupon he was held captive by Tupinambá Indians for two years. He later published his book Wahrhaftige Historia [true story, in free translation] an illustrated account of this adventure, that was largely responsible for searing the image of the savage, cannibal–infested tropics into the European mind, fuelling a cliché that would be used to legitimize violent colonization.
Following a commissioning for Documenta 12, in 2007, Dias & Riedweg re-enact this universe within the aesthetics of funk carioca, a genuine contemporary cultural expression of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In Kassel, during the Documenta, the work was presented as a three-screen video installation alternated with three mirroring surfaces, which created an octagonal arena that involved viewers in a kind of anthropophagical pot.
Here, Vermelho presents the Woodcut series, where Dias & Riedweg reenact original woodcuts from chapter XXIX of Hans Staden’s book, those that narrate details of the preparation of an anthropophagic banquet. The images were allegorically reconstructed with funkeiros and photographed on a slab barbecue on the top of Santa Marta hill, in Rio de Janeiro.
Hans Staden was born in the region of Kassel in the 16th Century. He was shipwrecked and washed up on the coast of what would soon be Brazil, whereupon he was held captive by Tupinambá Indians for two years. He later published his book Wahrhaftige Historia [true story, in free translation] an illustrated account of this adventure, that was largely responsible for searing the image of the savage, cannibal–infested tropics into the European mind, fuelling a cliché that would be used to legitimize violent colonization.
Following a commissioning for Documenta 12, in 2007, Dias & Riedweg re-enact this universe within the aesthetics of funk carioca, a genuine contemporary cultural expression of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In Kassel, during the Documenta, the work was presented as a three-screen video installation alternated with three mirroring surfaces, which created an octagonal arena that involved viewers in a kind of anthropophagical pot.
Here, Vermelho presents the Woodcut series, where Dias & Riedweg reenact original woodcuts from chapter XXIX of Hans Staden’s book, those that narrate details of the preparation of an anthropophagic banquet. The images were allegorically reconstructed with funkeiros and photographed on a slab barbecue on the top of Santa Marta hill, in Rio de Janeiro.
monochannel video – color and sound
Photo video still
The 2008 video shows Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg leafing through the original book by Hans Staden, where the explorer narrates his adventures and mishaps in tropical lands. The book is part of the Kassel library, which lent the volume for the video recording. When the woodcuts that illustrate the narrative appear, excerpts from videos by Dias & Riedweg overlap the images, creating a juxtaposition between the invader’s narrative and the aesthetics of funk in Rio de Janeiro.
The 2008 video shows Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg leafing through the original book by Hans Staden, where the explorer narrates his adventures and mishaps in tropical lands. The book is part of the Kassel library, which lent the volume for the video recording. When the woodcuts that illustrate the narrative appear, excerpts from videos by Dias & Riedweg overlap the images, creating a juxtaposition between the invader’s narrative and the aesthetics of funk in Rio de Janeiro.
monochannel video – color and sound
Photo video still
The 2008 video shows Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg leafing through the original book by Hans Staden, where the explorer narrates his adventures and mishaps in tropical lands. The book is part of the Kassel library, which lent the volume for the video recording. When the woodcuts that illustrate the narrative appear, excerpts from videos by Dias & Riedweg overlap the images, creating a juxtaposition between the invader’s narrative and the aesthetics of funk in Rio de Janeiro.
The 2008 video shows Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg leafing through the original book by Hans Staden, where the explorer narrates his adventures and mishaps in tropical lands. The book is part of the Kassel library, which lent the volume for the video recording. When the woodcuts that illustrate the narrative appear, excerpts from videos by Dias & Riedweg overlap the images, creating a juxtaposition between the invader’s narrative and the aesthetics of funk in Rio de Janeiro.
graphite, liquid watercolor and fixative on 80 gr Hahnemühle paper
Photo Vermelho
graphite, liquid watercolor and fixative on 80 gr Hahnemühle paper
Photo Vermelho
graphite, liquid watercolor and fixative on 80 gr Hahnemühle paper
Photo Vermelho
Iron
Photo Vermelho
Carmela Gross “HOOK” is both drawing and sculpture simultaneously. This apparent quick gesture took a series of artisanal and industrial procedures to be created. Its title, like its sharp edge, suggests perforation and, consequently, a certain degree of danger.
Douglas de Freitas points out in his text “Carmela Gross’ vast primer to face the world’ that Gross’s works “blurres boundaries between sketch, machine-made and handmade / city, crowd and individual, with its tools for questioning the established order, its imagistic assaults, and its weapons for facing the world and art”.
In 1989, Gross presented her works made in iron for the first time. Ana Maria Belluzo wrote at the time: “The figures that define Carmela’s visible universe appear at a time prior to the sign. As a form, they resist the automatisms and facilities of language and impose themselves as visual presences prior to any meaning.”
Carmela Gross “HOOK” is both drawing and sculpture simultaneously. This apparent quick gesture took a series of artisanal and industrial procedures to be created. Its title, like its sharp edge, suggests perforation and, consequently, a certain degree of danger.
Douglas de Freitas points out in his text “Carmela Gross’ vast primer to face the world’ that Gross’s works “blurres boundaries between sketch, machine-made and handmade / city, crowd and individual, with its tools for questioning the established order, its imagistic assaults, and its weapons for facing the world and art”.
In 1989, Gross presented her works made in iron for the first time. Ana Maria Belluzo wrote at the time: “The figures that define Carmela’s visible universe appear at a time prior to the sign. As a form, they resist the automatisms and facilities of language and impose themselves as visual presences prior to any meaning.”
cast aluminum
Photo Vermelho
PERDIDAS are compositions formed from tree bark cast in aluminum. They are almost-forms, hinting at incompleteness. They are primitive masses, grouping together like residues from many tactile experiments. The compositions of PERDIDAS seek scale, rhythms, gaps, equivalences, and differences in constructing each group.
PERDIDAS are compositions formed from tree bark cast in aluminum. They are almost-forms, hinting at incompleteness. They are primitive masses, grouping together like residues from many tactile experiments. The compositions of PERDIDAS seek scale, rhythms, gaps, equivalences, and differences in constructing each group.
12mm flamingo red neon with aluminum composite structure
Photo Vermelho
Acrylic resin and graphite powder on banana fiber handmade paper
Photo Filipe Berndt
In 1992, Carmela Gross presented the solo show “Drawings” at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo).
The exhibition brought together a set of works called “SOLO,” made with graphite and resin on handmade paper, with irregular edges. Later, Gross decided to fold some drawings in a regular way. This is how the work is presented today: as closed notes, condensed bodies of work, which reveal traces of their initial compositions.
Moreover, the reworking of the piece juxtaposes a formerly gestural and expressionist approach with one that is now characterized by geometric precision and restraint.
In 1992, Carmela Gross presented the solo show “Drawings” at MASP (Museu de Arte de São Paulo).
The exhibition brought together a set of works called “SOLO,” made with graphite and resin on handmade paper, with irregular edges. Later, Gross decided to fold some drawings in a regular way. This is how the work is presented today: as closed notes, condensed bodies of work, which reveal traces of their initial compositions.
Moreover, the reworking of the piece juxtaposes a formerly gestural and expressionist approach with one that is now characterized by geometric precision and restraint.
welded iron and hinges
Photo Vermelho
These mechanical artifacts were part of an installation at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in 1997, entitled Close the Door. They are 18 in all and were mounted side by side on the walls of a large room of about 200 square meters.
The pieces are constructed of cylindrical iron bars and are composed of two closely symmetrical and mirrored halves, which are hinged to the wall. Together, the two pieces form a schematic drawing in the space that resembles the structure of a chair; when rotated, the unit is undone and the metal rods can generate other shapes and meanings.
The hinge is a simple mechanism that allows you to easily revert a representation of power, such as a chair-shape, into an aggressive set of rebars.
These mechanical artifacts were part of an installation at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in 1997, entitled Close the Door. They are 18 in all and were mounted side by side on the walls of a large room of about 200 square meters.
The pieces are constructed of cylindrical iron bars and are composed of two closely symmetrical and mirrored halves, which are hinged to the wall. Together, the two pieces form a schematic drawing in the space that resembles the structure of a chair; when rotated, the unit is undone and the metal rods can generate other shapes and meanings.
The hinge is a simple mechanism that allows you to easily revert a representation of power, such as a chair-shape, into an aggressive set of rebars.
welded iron and hinges
Photo Vermelho
These mechanical artifacts were part of an installation at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in 1997, entitled Close the Door. They are 18 in all and were mounted side by side on the walls of a large room of about 200 square meters.
The pieces are constructed of cylindrical iron bars and are composed of two closely symmetrical and mirrored halves, which are hinged to the wall. Together, the two pieces form a schematic drawing in the space that resembles the structure of a chair; when rotated, the unit is undone and the metal rods can generate other shapes and meanings.
The hinge is a simple mechanism that allows you to easily revert a representation of power, such as a chair-shape, into an aggressive set of rebars.
These mechanical artifacts were part of an installation at the Centro Cultural São Paulo in 1997, entitled Close the Door. They are 18 in all and were mounted side by side on the walls of a large room of about 200 square meters.
The pieces are constructed of cylindrical iron bars and are composed of two closely symmetrical and mirrored halves, which are hinged to the wall. Together, the two pieces form a schematic drawing in the space that resembles the structure of a chair; when rotated, the unit is undone and the metal rods can generate other shapes and meanings.
The hinge is a simple mechanism that allows you to easily revert a representation of power, such as a chair-shape, into an aggressive set of rebars.
wood and bronze
Photo Filipe Berndt
Enamel paint and primer on stairs — site specific
Photo Filipe Berndt
Read the full text by Julieta González here
The meeting that makes possible an exhibition that puts into dialogue the works of e Carla Zaccagnini’s and Runo Lagormarsino’s extends beyond the sensitive proximities evident in the approximation of a couple of artists. It is the way home that moves us away, takes place ten years after the exhibition that the two artists held at the Malmö Konsthall, curated by Diana Baldon. The curator already pointed out, at that time, the many similarities between the productions of the two artists: the post-conceptual approach, the transnationalism of both biographies, institutional critique, and the revision of history, among others.
“Crossings, comings and goings, departures, returns, and what happens in between, are intertwined into Carla Zaccagnini’s and Runo Lagomarsino’s personal lives and respective works. This exhibition itself is a sort of path, where their trajectories cross and then bifurcate if only to meet again…,” writes Julieta González in the exhibition text.
Carla Zaccagnini adds: “There is no doubt that living together brings us closer. Groups of friends, students in the same class, close relatives end up sharing references, creating a common language, collecting a repertoire of inside jokes. Over the years living together, we are infected with expressions and gestures as if they were symptoms. We read or think we’ve read the same books, reconstruct or reinvent each film with poorly stored scenes scattered through our memories, guide and divert each other’s lines in dialogues that no one knows when they begin.”
2 advertising inflatable air dancer with text
Photo Filipe Berndt
Photo Filipe Berndt
With Carla Zaccagnini and Runo Lagomarsino
Photo Vermelho
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
With Carla Zaccagnini and Runo Lagomarsino
Photo Vermelho
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
With Carla Zaccagnini and Runo Lagomarsino
Photo Vermelho
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
A dialogue between the two artists is staged in two venues that house the two galleries that respectively represent each of the artists, Vermelho and Mendes Wood DM, separated by the length of Avenida Angélica in Sao Paulo. Linking both spaces is a peripatetic performance, the only collaborative work between the artists in the exhibition(s), entitled “Justice is the presence of love in public space,” borrows a phrase by African American intellectual Cornel West. During the whole exhibition period, two people will leave both galleries in the direction of the other, each one wearing a t-shirt. One reads “justice” on the front and “in public space” on the back, the other one reads “is the presence” on the front and “of love” on the back. At some point during the walk their paths will cross, and the phrase will come together “justice is the presence of love in public space,” only to break up apart moments later when the performers continue on their way.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Photo Vermelho
Graphite on paper and colorplus paper support
Photo Vermelho
Outline of all dictionaries between Swedish and other languages belonging to the Malmö library.
Outline of all dictionaries between Swedish and other languages belonging to the Malmö library.
Stamp ink on the back of school maps
Photo Filipe Berndt
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Stamp ink on the back of school maps
Photo Vermelho
(…)These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.(…)
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
(…)These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.(…)
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Exhibition setup, It’s the way home that takes us away. From right to left: Abraão Reis, Runo Lagomarsino and Carla Zaccagnini
Photo Vermelho
Exhibition setup, It’s the way home that takes us away. From right to left: Henrique Oliveira e Abraão Reis.
Photo Vermelho
Stamp ink on the back of school maps
Photo Filipe Berndt
Photo Filipe Berndt
Photo Filipe Berndt
Inkjet printing on paper
Photo Vermelho
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Inkjet printing on paper
Photo reproduction
Comparative study of national anthems.
.
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Comparative study of national anthems.
.
These (the Dactylograms) establish a conversation with Zaccagnini’s World Words, an inventory, yet another index, of words that appear repeatedly on national anthems (soil, earth, land, country, bravery, chains, struggle). Both works perform as indexes of the symbolic construction of a nation state, of the idea of home and belonging related to the land.
Excerpt from It is the way home that moves us away, by Julieta González
Photo Vermelho
Video – Color, no sound
Photo video still
Photo Filipe Berndt
Vermelho features, in Sala Antonio, a set of 5 videos from the early production of André Komatsu. In common, the works deal with the artist’s movement in the city through imposing performative propositions. These impositions result in durational performances that are reflected in the duration of the videos, which are always recorded by non-participating observers who control the cameras while keeping a distance from the artist. Some themes present in the videos can be identified throughout Komatsu’s trajectory, such as the critique of urbanization in large cities.
Encouraçado, 2001, 3’13’
Komatsu rolls down the stairs at FAAP, where he studied, from the highest floor of the institution’s main building, until he reaches the street.
Circuito Fechado, 2002, 33’
Komatsu walks around a city block with his eyes closed, dealing with the interruptions that the urban elements impose.
Afrontamento, 2003, 57’
Komatsu takes 57 minutes to walk one block of Avenida Paulista.
Oeste ou até onde o sol pode alcançar, 2006, 26’
Komatsu, equipped with a compass, tries to reproduce the path of the sun, traveling a section of the city from east to west. The artist needs to overcome trees, walls and busy streets to complete the route. The video is interrupted each time the imposition of the walk becomes impossible.
Corpo duro, 2006, 37’:
Komatsu walks around the city collecting stones and construction debris that he accumulates in his pockets, backpack and inside his clothes until his walking becomes impossible.
loop video and wooden object
Photo video still
In André Komatsu’s video installation, a manual level sways as if it were at sea. This instrument, which traditionally uses sea level as a reference point for stability and horizontality, now moves uncontrollably, tirelessly pursuing the horizon line.
The projection stand also becomes part of the narrative: a French cleat, typically a symbol of solidity, here, even when enlarged, fails to fulfill its function.
In André Komatsu’s video installation, a manual level sways as if it were at sea. This instrument, which traditionally uses sea level as a reference point for stability and horizontality, now moves uncontrollably, tirelessly pursuing the horizon line.
The projection stand also becomes part of the narrative: a French cleat, typically a symbol of solidity, here, even when enlarged, fails to fulfill its function.
video – color and sound
Photo video still
Komatsu rolls down the stairs at FAAP, one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in Brazil where he studied, from the highest floor of the institution’s main building, until he reaches the street.
Komatsu rolls down the stairs at FAAP, one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in Brazil where he studied, from the highest floor of the institution’s main building, until he reaches the street.
video – color and sound
Photo video still
In Circuito Fechado [Closed circuit], performed on the streets of São Paulo, the artist attempts to walk around the block with his eyes closed, in a voluntary blindness that revisits previous performances in which he discusses the limits of his own body and sharpens his spatial perception through the exercise of memory, touch, and hearing.
In Circuito Fechado [Closed circuit], performed on the streets of São Paulo, the artist attempts to walk around the block with his eyes closed, in a voluntary blindness that revisits previous performances in which he discusses the limits of his own body and sharpens his spatial perception through the exercise of memory, touch, and hearing.
video documented performance – color and sound
Photo video still
Komatsu takes 57 minutes to walk one block of Avenida Paulista.
Komatsu takes 57 minutes to walk one block of Avenida Paulista.
video – color and sound
Photo video still
From the early days of his career, West or as Far as the Sun Can Reach (2006) is a video-recorded performance. Komatsu himself embarks on a herculean journey through a long stretch in the city of São Paulo, attempting to fully follow the path of the sun, from the far east to the far west of the urban perimeter. Armed with a compass, he navigates through the vastness of the metropolis and seeks to overcome the obstacles in his path. The instrument for verifying technical-scientific data helps him to attempt to now in his living environment, drawing an analogy between the real world and the reference information, rarely questioned.
Diego Matos
From the early days of his career, West or as Far as the Sun Can Reach (2006) is a video-recorded performance. Komatsu himself embarks on a herculean journey through a long stretch in the city of São Paulo, attempting to fully follow the path of the sun, from the far east to the far west of the urban perimeter. Armed with a compass, he navigates through the vastness of the metropolis and seeks to overcome the obstacles in his path. The instrument for verifying technical-scientific data helps him to attempt to now in his living environment, drawing an analogy between the real world and the reference information, rarely questioned.
Diego Matos
video – color and sound
Photo video still
From the early days of his career, West or as Far as the Sun Can Reach (2006) is a video-recorded performance. Komatsu himself embarks on a herculean journey through a long stretch in the city of São Paulo, attempting to fully follow the path of the sun, from the far east to the far west of the urban perimeter. Armed with a compass, he navigates through the vastness of the metropolis and seeks to overcome the obstacles in his path. The instrument for verifying technical-scientific data helps him to attempt to now in his living environment, drawing an analogy between the real world and the reference information, rarely questioned.
Diego Matos
From the early days of his career, West or as Far as the Sun Can Reach (2006) is a video-recorded performance. Komatsu himself embarks on a herculean journey through a long stretch in the city of São Paulo, attempting to fully follow the path of the sun, from the far east to the far west of the urban perimeter. Armed with a compass, he navigates through the vastness of the metropolis and seeks to overcome the obstacles in his path. The instrument for verifying technical-scientific data helps him to attempt to now in his living environment, drawing an analogy between the real world and the reference information, rarely questioned.
Diego Matos
video – color and sound
Photo still do vídeo
Komatsu walks around the city collecting stones and construction debris that he accumulates in his pockets, backpack and inside his clothes until his walking becomes impossible.
Komatsu walks around the city collecting stones and construction debris that he accumulates in his pockets, backpack and inside his clothes until his walking becomes impossible.
Landscape is one of the most traditional themes in artistic production since its understanding as a medium. Landscape analysis is an interdisciplinary subject that has the potential to reveal much about history and its interactions, perceptions, and influences on the surrounding environment. Humans recognize in nature an inseparable link with themselves and thus gradually include ethical and aesthetic values in the environments portrayed by the arts over the centuries.
What, then, would be some of the possible investigative strategies of the landscape from a conceptualist perspective, between the late 20th century and the early decades of the 21st century? Through an investigation in its collection, Vermelho identifies procedures and strategies of its artists that seek what lies behind the landscape.
Photo Filipe Berndt
printing with mineral pigment ink on Canson Rag Photographique paper 310 gr
Photo reproduction
“Pele” [Skin] is a photographic action that situates the body in the scenery of the metropolis. Lia Chaia works with perceptions and experiences of everyday life, such as the permanent tension between urban space, body, and nature. Performance is one of Chaia’s frequent strategies in her production, in intense relation to the conceptual artistic modality that emerged in the 1960s, as well as with photography. The role played by the camera has its reason for being in a poetic particularly interested in the documentary aspect of the artistic operation.
“Pele” [Skin] is a photographic action that situates the body in the scenery of the metropolis. Lia Chaia works with perceptions and experiences of everyday life, such as the permanent tension between urban space, body, and nature. Performance is one of Chaia’s frequent strategies in her production, in intense relation to the conceptual artistic modality that emerged in the 1960s, as well as with photography. The role played by the camera has its reason for being in a poetic particularly interested in the documentary aspect of the artistic operation.
Embroidery on felt
In the work, Dardot creates blank fields that suggest landscapes, not only by the title of the series, but also by the embroidered horizontal fields within the felt fields. Felt itself is not neutral. Being a textile conglomerate, it carries color and texture information, as well as being used as thermal and sound insulation. The embroidered captions at the bottom of the composition also refer to the sound of the proposed landscapes: they are phrases from the “In a Fog” Archive, where Dardot collects excerpts from books with the word “silence.”
In the work, Dardot creates blank fields that suggest landscapes, not only by the title of the series, but also by the embroidered horizontal fields within the felt fields. Felt itself is not neutral. Being a textile conglomerate, it carries color and texture information, as well as being used as thermal and sound insulation. The embroidered captions at the bottom of the composition also refer to the sound of the proposed landscapes: they are phrases from the “In a Fog” Archive, where Dardot collects excerpts from books with the word “silence.”
banner in PVA paint on fabric (images from the action of stretching it in various locations)
Photo Silvana Marcelina
“In Calunga Grande*, André evokes the memory of the waters of the Atlantic, where more than 2 million Africans are buried after beeing thrown into the sea during the more than three centuries of human trafficking.
A banner of monumental scale that reads Calunga Grande produces meaning in the contact with points that constitute the territory baptized as “Pequena África” by Heitor dos Prazeres. André Vargas and Jéssica Hipólito wear white in reverence to those who came before them, those who conquered death, dreamed and fought for a future of freedom for their descendants.”
Juliana Pereira
“Calunga Grande it is the sea on the infinite horizon that swallows souls. It is the gaze of someone who remains, or is yet to be forcibly carried away, watching someone who has already been caught being erased by violence and distance.
It is the indecipherable absolute that sways the waters in the dungeons of memory. It is where the wind and torment live for me. It is the movement of bodies that leave without any choice.
It is the essence of each grain, it is the excellence of each bubble. It is a non-ground of trampled blood and blue.
It is the sea that is made of death. It’s the cut that pours the rum. It’s everywhere were the sea has been or the sea will be. It’s everywhere there is.”
André Vargas
*When crossing the ocean, during the trafficing of enslaved people, Calunga Grande could be the final destination for those who did not arrive alive or healthy. The term was used to designate the sea itself but could also be understood as a cemetery.
“In Calunga Grande*, André evokes the memory of the waters of the Atlantic, where more than 2 million Africans are buried after beeing thrown into the sea during the more than three centuries of human trafficking.
A banner of monumental scale that reads Calunga Grande produces meaning in the contact with points that constitute the territory baptized as “Pequena África” by Heitor dos Prazeres. André Vargas and Jéssica Hipólito wear white in reverence to those who came before them, those who conquered death, dreamed and fought for a future of freedom for their descendants.”
Juliana Pereira
“Calunga Grande it is the sea on the infinite horizon that swallows souls. It is the gaze of someone who remains, or is yet to be forcibly carried away, watching someone who has already been caught being erased by violence and distance.
It is the indecipherable absolute that sways the waters in the dungeons of memory. It is where the wind and torment live for me. It is the movement of bodies that leave without any choice.
It is the essence of each grain, it is the excellence of each bubble. It is a non-ground of trampled blood and blue.
It is the sea that is made of death. It’s the cut that pours the rum. It’s everywhere were the sea has been or the sea will be. It’s everywhere there is.”
André Vargas
*When crossing the ocean, during the trafficing of enslaved people, Calunga Grande could be the final destination for those who did not arrive alive or healthy. The term was used to designate the sea itself but could also be understood as a cemetery.
The selection of paintings presented here is part of the original works by Dora Longo Bahia for the creation of the book “wAkupaLice,” from 2006.
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
The selection of paintings presented here is part of the original works by Dora Longo Bahia for the creation of the book “wAkupaLice,” from 2006.
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
Photo reproduction
The selection of paintings presented here is part of the original works by Dora Longo Bahia for the creation of the book “wAkupaLice,” from 2006.
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
The selection of paintings presented here is part of the original works by Dora Longo Bahia for the creation of the book “wAkupaLice,” from 2006.
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
Artist’s book – edition of 20 numbered and signed
Photo Vermelho
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
The work creates connections between “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll, “Finnegans Wake” and “Ulysses” by James Joyce, and David Lynch.
Photo Vermelho
Da Costa composes a view of the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, using graphite on graph paper. The artist applies mathematical metrics to represent the ninth highest mountain in the world. Da Costa observes Carstensz’s topography from the millimetric modulation of paper for technical, geometric, and graphic drawings, elaborating a sort of cartography for the mountain.
Da Costa composes a view of the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, using graphite on graph paper. The artist applies mathematical metrics to represent the ninth highest mountain in the world. Da Costa observes Carstensz’s topography from the millimetric modulation of paper for technical, geometric, and graphic drawings, elaborating a sort of cartography for the mountain.
Digital print on paper
Photo Filipe Berndt
Esse trabalho foi realizado pela primeira vez em 1982 e é constituído por uma série de 19 páginas. Em cada uma das folhas de papel em branco se lê, no pé, uma escala que indica a correspondência entre as dimensões da página, medidas em centímetros, e as grandes extensões territoriais, medidas em quilômetros.
Nas cartas geográficas, essas escalas servem para relacionar a dimensão da imagem impressa com a dimensão real daquilo que está referido no mapa: zonas, regiões, cordilheiras, oceanos, mares, rios, fronteiras, países, cidades.
Neste caso, como a página está em branco, é o vazio que se distende e que, imaginariamente, vai constituir um espaço monumental.
O menor possível, palpável, combinado com larguras, distâncias, extensões impossíveis.
Esse trabalho foi realizado pela primeira vez em 1982 e é constituído por uma série de 19 páginas. Em cada uma das folhas de papel em branco se lê, no pé, uma escala que indica a correspondência entre as dimensões da página, medidas em centímetros, e as grandes extensões territoriais, medidas em quilômetros.
Nas cartas geográficas, essas escalas servem para relacionar a dimensão da imagem impressa com a dimensão real daquilo que está referido no mapa: zonas, regiões, cordilheiras, oceanos, mares, rios, fronteiras, países, cidades.
Neste caso, como a página está em branco, é o vazio que se distende e que, imaginariamente, vai constituir um espaço monumental.
O menor possível, palpável, combinado com larguras, distâncias, extensões impossíveis.
video – color and sound
Photo video still
Video – Color and sound
Photo video still
Video – color and sound
Photo video still
photolith film, Pantone® code table and acrylic
Photo Marcelo Moschetta
By contrasting photoliths with Pantone color charts, Moscheta makes his own translations of the lush natural landscapes depicted in the Atacama. Using strategies linked to the classification and cataloging of files, Moscheta analyzes the landscape guided by chromatic relationships, leaving it to the viewer to reassign the colors to the elements.
By contrasting photoliths with Pantone color charts, Moscheta makes his own translations of the lush natural landscapes depicted in the Atacama. Using strategies linked to the classification and cataloging of files, Moscheta analyzes the landscape guided by chromatic relationships, leaving it to the viewer to reassign the colors to the elements.
Lightjet print on paper
Photo Vermelho
The polyptych presents the record of the passage and changing position of the sun made on a box of black sand, with the aid of a magnifying glass, 30 days before the beginning of spring in the Tropic of Capricorn. The 18 photos show the sunny days of the period.
The polyptych presents the record of the passage and changing position of the sun made on a box of black sand, with the aid of a magnifying glass, 30 days before the beginning of spring in the Tropic of Capricorn. The 18 photos show the sunny days of the period.
Inkjet printing and corrosion on iron
Photo Marcelo Moscheta
In the series Positivo Singular [Singular Positive], Moscheta presents a series of ten photographs of uncommon landscapes of the Chilean desert topped with iron sheets that form volumes which recall the monolith in the film 2001: a Space Oddyssey, by Stanley Kubrick.
In the 1968 film, the black volume made of an undefined material symbolized a synchronism between past and future, like an atemporal announcement of man’s pioneering destiny. The first appearance of the object in the film takes place at the moment when man’s ancestor discovers that the same bone that forms his structure can be used as a tool or as a weapon.
In Moscheta’s works, however, this monolith is subject to the passage of time and, due to its ferrous material, acquires marks of the passage of time, with constant oxidation and corrosion. Moscheta’s monoliths are thus synchronous with those of Kubrik, but insofar as they are manmade, they only tend to decay.
In the series Positivo Singular [Singular Positive], Moscheta presents a series of ten photographs of uncommon landscapes of the Chilean desert topped with iron sheets that form volumes which recall the monolith in the film 2001: a Space Oddyssey, by Stanley Kubrick.
In the 1968 film, the black volume made of an undefined material symbolized a synchronism between past and future, like an atemporal announcement of man’s pioneering destiny. The first appearance of the object in the film takes place at the moment when man’s ancestor discovers that the same bone that forms his structure can be used as a tool or as a weapon.
In Moscheta’s works, however, this monolith is subject to the passage of time and, due to its ferrous material, acquires marks of the passage of time, with constant oxidation and corrosion. Moscheta’s monoliths are thus synchronous with those of Kubrik, but insofar as they are manmade, they only tend to decay.
Photo Filipe Berndt
Photo Filipe Berndt
pigment print on kozo awagami paper 110g
Photo Filipe Berndt
In the series Clouds (2022), Detanico Lain created a set of 15 images of white clouds on a blue background. From a distance, the observer can, as in a game, look for shapes in the clouds, but when getting closer, he sees that, in fact, the clouds are made of letters that form words. The letters scattered across the images also require some investigation to uncover the word that is there.
In the series Clouds (2022), Detanico Lain created a set of 15 images of white clouds on a blue background. From a distance, the observer can, as in a game, look for shapes in the clouds, but when getting closer, he sees that, in fact, the clouds are made of letters that form words. The letters scattered across the images also require some investigation to uncover the word that is there.
1.5mm wire
Partido de la Costa is one of the 135 partidos (districts) that make This work stems from Robbio’s research on country borders as studies on lines. The research investigates the power of drawing to divide geographic portions into distinct politics, cultures, and economies. Robbio talks about borders established from geographical accidents, conflicts, and diverse cultural contexts as impositions to be adhered to. Thus, Robbio establishes an exercise with another imposition to the line: turning lines of 1 meter in length into lines of 70 centimeters. However, there is a problem in the challenge: lines cannot be reduced without becoming volumes.
Partido de la Costa is one of the 135 partidos (districts) that make This work stems from Robbio’s research on country borders as studies on lines. The research investigates the power of drawing to divide geographic portions into distinct politics, cultures, and economies. Robbio talks about borders established from geographical accidents, conflicts, and diverse cultural contexts as impositions to be adhered to. Thus, Robbio establishes an exercise with another imposition to the line: turning lines of 1 meter in length into lines of 70 centimeters. However, there is a problem in the challenge: lines cannot be reduced without becoming volumes.
Mineral pigmented inkjet print on Hahnemühle Museum Etching 350g
Photo Vermelho
I like to think of this work as a drawing. Perhaps a Paleolithic graphism, because it evokes the most primitive way of drawing – a line of paint on an earth surface.
During a strike, I went out with a group of school friends to photograph the outskirts of the city. We decided to stop in an almost deserted area near Santo Amaro, where a newly opened avenue cut through a rugged area among curves, holes and large hills. It was a wall of earth that looked good to
paint. A part of it, with the earth in horizontal bands, worked exactly like a stair, by which one could go up and down freely. I took advantage of that to draw zigzag lines on it, like the steps of a stair.
The observed thing (hill/earth steps) and the drawn thing (lines/scheme), almost on the same scale, resonated with each other. An urban design.
Carmela Gross
I like to think of this work as a drawing. Perhaps a Paleolithic graphism, because it evokes the most primitive way of drawing – a line of paint on an earth surface.
During a strike, I went out with a group of school friends to photograph the outskirts of the city. We decided to stop in an almost deserted area near Santo Amaro, where a newly opened avenue cut through a rugged area among curves, holes and large hills. It was a wall of earth that looked good to
paint. A part of it, with the earth in horizontal bands, worked exactly like a stair, by which one could go up and down freely. I took advantage of that to draw zigzag lines on it, like the steps of a stair.
The observed thing (hill/earth steps) and the drawn thing (lines/scheme), almost on the same scale, resonated with each other. An urban design.
Carmela Gross
Cutting and acrylic painting on newspaper and drywall and steel frame
Photo Vermelho
Power relations permeate the materials chosen by Komatsu. It is these relations that often constitute the true raw material used in his work. “Lusco-Fusco” brings together the precariousness of Drywall with the ephemerality of news from newspaper clippings. With cuts and punches, Komatsu breaks through the surfaces of his paintings into geometric or gestural abstractions, while fragments of news suggest representations of what could emerge there. While his titles suggest a place between day and night, his forms suggest something between figuration and abstraction.
Power relations permeate the materials chosen by Komatsu. It is these relations that often constitute the true raw material used in his work. “Lusco-Fusco” brings together the precariousness of Drywall with the ephemerality of news from newspaper clippings. With cuts and punches, Komatsu breaks through the surfaces of his paintings into geometric or gestural abstractions, while fragments of news suggest representations of what could emerge there. While his titles suggest a place between day and night, his forms suggest something between figuration and abstraction.
Enamel on fibreboard
Photo Vermelho
In Terrains, drawings made with enamel paint that create camouflage patterns. In the marbling technique called Ebru, the paint is placed on a surface of water, and the design is set by the movement of the water as it runs off an absorbent surface.
The paintings refer to the regions of South America seen by satellites. The pieces were built on the basis of a tangram puzzle. This point reinforces the idea of camouflage as a development of logical reasoning in the analysis and distinctiveness of its forms. When referring to this type of model, the artist also points to the regions represented as conflict zones or as zones of imminent conflict.
In Terrains, drawings made with enamel paint that create camouflage patterns. In the marbling technique called Ebru, the paint is placed on a surface of water, and the design is set by the movement of the water as it runs off an absorbent surface.
The paintings refer to the regions of South America seen by satellites. The pieces were built on the basis of a tangram puzzle. This point reinforces the idea of camouflage as a development of logical reasoning in the analysis and distinctiveness of its forms. When referring to this type of model, the artist also points to the regions represented as conflict zones or as zones of imminent conflict.
wooden frame, glass, print and sand
Photo Vermelho
In “Both Sides of the São Francisco,” Robbio starts with a format proposed by Argentine painter Cándido López (1840-1902), who, to portray the battles of the Triple Alliance War, developed an elongated horizontal field for his paintings, in order to cover the length of battles. Robbio uses this feature to reinforce the idea of landscape and uses the sand and the cartographic perimeter in the background paper to suggest a landscape to be constituted by memory or imagination.
In “Both Sides of the São Francisco,” Robbio starts with a format proposed by Argentine painter Cándido López (1840-1902), who, to portray the battles of the Triple Alliance War, developed an elongated horizontal field for his paintings, in order to cover the length of battles. Robbio uses this feature to reinforce the idea of landscape and uses the sand and the cartographic perimeter in the background paper to suggest a landscape to be constituted by memory or imagination.
Inkjet on paper
Photo Reproduction
The photos in the series Sem Título (Patagônia) [Untitled (Patagonia)] were captured in a car trip taken by the artist to Patagonia, in 2007. The series is composed of views of mountains, glaciers, beaches and forests, deserts and rivers. These images, destitute of human presence, were created using pinhole cameras or Holga cameras, the Chinese brand famous for its inexpensive cameras with a plastic lens and body. The result is images of majestic landscapes which, due to the technical device chosen by the artist to record them, are either distorted, in the case of those made with the Holga cameras, or else marked by large reddish patches of light that entered the pinhole cameras.
The photos in the series Sem Título (Patagônia) [Untitled (Patagonia)] were captured in a car trip taken by the artist to Patagonia, in 2007. The series is composed of views of mountains, glaciers, beaches and forests, deserts and rivers. These images, destitute of human presence, were created using pinhole cameras or Holga cameras, the Chinese brand famous for its inexpensive cameras with a plastic lens and body. The result is images of majestic landscapes which, due to the technical device chosen by the artist to record them, are either distorted, in the case of those made with the Holga cameras, or else marked by large reddish patches of light that entered the pinhole cameras.
graphite on expanded PVC mounted on metalon iron structure
Since the beginning of his career, Moscheta has created works born from his journeys through remote places, where he collects objects, images, and scientific data. “My relationship with the landscape rests on a primary attempt to construct an ideal place, an imitation of nature as a faithful portrayal of relationships of perfection and balance. Thus, I aim to encompass all possibilities of understanding a location, not only through sensory means like drawing or photography but also through rational forms of understanding place: latitude, longitude, altitude, mathematical calculations, and technical/ scientific references.”
“Atacama: 28.04-06.05/2012” records, on a pencil drawing reproducing a satellite image of the Atacama Desert, the artist’s journey through the territory over 7 days between April and May 2012. The line marked on the hyper realistic drawing creates tension by indicating the presence of man entering the untamed environment of the desert.
Since the beginning of his career, Moscheta has created works born from his journeys through remote places, where he collects objects, images, and scientific data. “My relationship with the landscape rests on a primary attempt to construct an ideal place, an imitation of nature as a faithful portrayal of relationships of perfection and balance. Thus, I aim to encompass all possibilities of understanding a location, not only through sensory means like drawing or photography but also through rational forms of understanding place: latitude, longitude, altitude, mathematical calculations, and technical/ scientific references.”
“Atacama: 28.04-06.05/2012” records, on a pencil drawing reproducing a satellite image of the Atacama Desert, the artist’s journey through the territory over 7 days between April and May 2012. The line marked on the hyper realistic drawing creates tension by indicating the presence of man entering the untamed environment of the desert.
White plastic table and sand
Photo Filipe Berndt
Partido de la Costa is one of the 135 partidos (districts) that make up the Province of Buenos Aires. It is a coastal region, whose geographical layout favors life on the shore. The busiest beaches are filled with popular molded plastic furniture, sharing space with the sand. By displacing and juxtaposing the two elements, Robbio configures a new landscape. “It’s like a geographical accident caused by two elements that belong to the same place,” says the artist. Robbio’s practice often relies on overlays that bring new meanings to the structure of common objects.
Partido de la Costa is one of the 135 partidos (districts) that make up the Province of Buenos Aires. It is a coastal region, whose geographical layout favors life on the shore. The busiest beaches are filled with popular molded plastic furniture, sharing space with the sand. By displacing and juxtaposing the two elements, Robbio configures a new landscape. “It’s like a geographical accident caused by two elements that belong to the same place,” says the artist. Robbio’s practice often relies on overlays that bring new meanings to the structure of common objects.
08 layers of passe-partout and 2 mm anti-reflective glass
Photo Vermelho
Endorheic lakes from different regions are presented by their forms in contour lines through digital cut in museological papers of passe-partout, the glass representing the dimension of the water in these lakes are displaced into the frame indicating the current situation of the level of the reservoirs, due to fluctuations of weather conditions. One can see how the lakes have declined in size and dried up over the past few years due to human action.
Endorheic lakes from different regions are presented by their forms in contour lines through digital cut in museological papers of passe-partout, the glass representing the dimension of the water in these lakes are displaced into the frame indicating the current situation of the level of the reservoirs, due to fluctuations of weather conditions. One can see how the lakes have declined in size and dried up over the past few years due to human action.
Photocopy on concrete, acrilic varnish, vinyl glue and MDF
André Komatsu has an intrinsic relation to the streets in his works, which may react to political developments or to social uses of the public space. In his new series ‘Noturnos’, slabs of cement are framed by rudimentary pieces of wood – like if they were collected from the streets itself. Inlaid on the cement are images from newspaper depicting clashes between protesters and police or between protesters from different sides of the polarized spectrum of Brazilian society. Alongside the photographs are geometric markings or drawings which frame those images within the structural problems that divide Brazilian society.
André Komatsu has an intrinsic relation to the streets in his works, which may react to political developments or to social uses of the public space. In his new series ‘Noturnos’, slabs of cement are framed by rudimentary pieces of wood – like if they were collected from the streets itself. Inlaid on the cement are images from newspaper depicting clashes between protesters and police or between protesters from different sides of the polarized spectrum of Brazilian society. Alongside the photographs are geometric markings or drawings which frame those images within the structural problems that divide Brazilian society.