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Reading time 4 min

New exhibitions at Inhotim

Redação Inhotim

As of September 4, those visiting Inhotim will be able to see several new artworks. Artists from Eastern Europe, Asia and the United States propose a new look towards contemporary art production.

 

According to Rodrigo Moura, art and cultural program director for the Institute, in the past 10 years interest for art from Latin America and other regions outside hegemonic production centers has increased worldwide. “This movement is very much related to a perspective of narrative decentralization. Considering this context, we understand that the role of a space such as Inhotim is not only to collect renowned names, but also to introduce others, less known here”, he says.

 

A new permanent gallery, the eighteenth in the Institute, will be dedicated to North-American painter Carroll Dunham. This gallery will shelter a series of paintings entitled Garden (2008), which comprises five works that reflect the artist’s impressions about Inhotim.

 

carroll
One of the paintings in the “Garden” series (2008), by Carroll Dunham. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photo: David Regen

Galeria Lago, one of the four spaces that hold temporary exhibits at Inhotim, will receive works by three different artists. Romanian Geta Br?tescu, considered a type of Eastern Europe Louise Bourgeois, will have a major individual display of her production, with works made between 1986 and 2013 and entitled The garden and other myths.

geta
“Medea Hypostases III” (1980), by Geta Br?tescu. Courtesy of the artist and Ivan Gallery, Romania. Photo: Stefan Sava

Dominik Lang, from the Czech Republic, presents Sleeping City (2011), an installation composed of bronze sculptures created by the artist’s father. Amid iron and wooden sculptures, the pieces acquire new meanings.

Domink
“Sleeping City” (2011), by Dominik Lang. Photo: Ondrej Polak

Filipino artist David Medalla will present the work Cloud-Gates (1965/2013) from the Bubble Machines series – kinetic sculpture formed by foam and first created by the artist in the 1960s.

medalla
“Cloud-Gates Bubble Machine” (1963-2013), by David Medalla. Courtesy of Baró Galeria. PR Photo

To celebrate the opening of new projects, musicians Jards Macalé and Jorge Mautner will be on the Inhotim em Cena stage for a special performance. Musical partners and longtime friends, the two artists will replay Brazilian popular music hits and promise to surprise the audience. The concert starts at 3 p.m., near the Magic Square.

Reading time 5 min

Breathe and have fun!

Maria Eugênia Salcedo Repolês

The idea was to spend one morning at the Bronx, in New York, talking with North-American artist John Ahearn.Right at his studio’s entrance, we felt a different energy. Apologizing for not remembering the keywords to communicate in Portuguese, John greeted us with an outburst of energy. The plans immediately changed. All of the sudden, we were getting ready to make the mold of “three… no, even better, four youths!” Nine years ago, he and artist Rigoberto Torres were in Brumadinho doing the same procedure to compose two pieces of work displayed at Galeria Praça, at Inhotim: Rodoviária de Brumadinho [Brumadinho Bus Station] (2005) e Abre a porta [Open the door] (2006).

 

The young participants of Laboratório Inhotim freely moved around the artist’s studio, while John, together with his assistant, started preparing the materials for the sculptures and began moving furniture around the space. He put together a scene, changed it, complemented it, oriented, thought, rethought, arranged things. “Almost like a movie director…”, he joked with one of the young boys. We were indeed in one of his artistic compositions, even though we hadn’t started the sculpturing process Ahearn is so well-known for.

 

Almost 10 years ago, I met Ahearn at Inhotim, in the blue house that was his studio at the time, at the bus station square in Brumadinho, in the streets of Sapé, a runaway-slave community in the region. He recorded and experienced cultural, religious and everyday manifestations of the town.  Afterwards, these experiences became part of his two pieces of work in the Institute’s collection. Each person in the panels was a story, that told the life of the town, the local culture, but which also narrates the strength of gatherings and dialogs. Meeting him again, this time at the Bronx, I remembered the phenomenal human strength in his work.

 

“Where are the straws to make the molds? They always disappear when we are about to start the process… It’s ok, it’s going to work”, says John. And, in fact, everything worked out just fine. The youngsters observed and participated in the artist’s creative and technical process, learning about the details, observing decisions, thinking about solutions.

John Ahearn prepara os jovens para fazer os moldes. Foto: Alice Dias
John Ahearn prepares the young participants for the molds. Photo: Alice Dias

But, after all, bearing in mind the purpose of these youngsters’ trip – research and be inspired to produce the Street Festival in Brumadinho – what could the work of an artist in his studio teach? The answer might be: every process requires effort. Deciding means to transform, and the power of transformation is one of the artist’s tools. Producing something makes a difference in the world. “Isn’t it touching? We are creating four sculptures, that is, four things that didn’t exist before!”, said John in the middle of the process. For him, the answer could be even simpler: “I ask two things of you today: first, breathe. Second, have fun!”.

O resultado da visita ao ateliê do artista, uma experiência que será lembrada para sempre. Foto: Maria Eugênia Salcedo Repolês
The result of the visit to the artist’s studio, an experience that will be forever reminded. Photo: Maria Eugênia Salcedo Repolês

Click here to learn more about our trip. Laboratório Inhotim is sponsored by Banco Itaú.

Reading time 2 min

Contemporary dance in the gardens

Redação Inhotim

In 2013, Cia. de Dança Palácio das Artes occupied Inhotim performing Se eu pudesse entrar na sua vida [If I could get into your life]. The experience was so successful that in 2014 Inhotim renewed the partnership with the company, this time to create a performance directly related to the Institute’s collections. This is how Gestos Ordinários / Coleção CDPA [Ordinary Gestures] came to pass, the first choreography commissioned by Inhotim, which will be presented August 15, 16 and 17, at 2:30 p.m. in the park’s gardens.

 

An essential point of the creative work for the intervention was to think whether it would be possible to build a choreography based on the movements people make in their everyday lives, such as sitting, kissing or hugging. “An action, such as raising your arms, done in different ways is not the same action”, reflects choreographer Dani Lima, director of the project, carried out in partnership with Cia. de Dança Palácio das Artes. The result of the group’s investigations was an inventory of gestures that dialog with ideas present in all museums, such as collectionism, cataloguing and memory, and can be taken to other spaces other than Inhotim.

 

Feel like watching Gestos Ordinários | Coleção CDPA? Then purchase your ticket to Inhotim here. The show is free for visitors and is part of Inhotim em Cena 2014 program, presented by  Pirelli, sponsored by Correios with the support of Saritur.

Reading time 3 min

Days that seem not to go by

Julio Le Parc

Good bye Inhotim

the Inhotim I knew before visiting you

was left

behind

with those fragmented pieces of information

and

in those images of

colored illustrations.

 

The other Inhotim

the one I experienced for five days

is right here within me

with its tranquil strength

with the presence

of its days

that seem not to go by

and remain imprinted in me.

 

Nature-art

art-nature

conjugation

 

But

make no mistake

this

nature is art

 

How much wisdom was needed so that

the art we find there

was not phagocyted

by the multiple greens

inhaling the sky.

 

What about the resonance

of this superb nature

as we enter the pavilions

an echo of that which lives in them

is transported

outside with a new echo.

 

And the back and fro weaves

a harmonic tie

creating a magical state

which seems out of this world,

yet, with reality as a background.

 

Nature-art-public

the public as a binding agent

and

we are this public

boy, young, mature

sole receivers

recreating the world.

 

And all this strolling around Inhotim

brings a certain joy of life

that comes from the active relation with what

you are receiving.

 

Slowly

with gluttony

we become

citizens of Inhotim

unconditional citizens.

 

So many things experienced with a

calm spirit but in a

fast pace, when details are put under

a telescope

and metamorphose

and they go by

and they go by us again

bringing small intense

sensations

that reconstruct

a whole, in motion

which is not perceived in its totality

that which is experienced

makes us think there is a whole there

that floats before us

that attaches itself to us

with that which we had seen with our own eyes

with that which we had discovered with our own feet

with a joyful effort

in a fast-paced morning

multiple facets of this whole.

 

Order inside the pavilions

order in that which is illuminated by the sun.

 

Undoubtedly, order

between a will and

great sensitivity

in a unique mind

and this is called:

creation!

 

Inhotim is an invented creation

result of a

unique visionary capacity

that works with what we call

utopia

together with that which grows from the soil

And this creator has a name and a last name:

Bernardo

I’m honored to be able to contribute

with my small grain of sand in this creation!

 

 

 

Cachan, France

June, 2014

Reading time 4 min

Travel log

Alice Dias

As I write this testimonial, I´m still very moved by the flood of emotions we´ve experienced in the past few days. These days were filled with many “first times” for most of the eight teenagers taking part in Laboratório Inhotim. Their first trip outside the state of Minas Gerais, first plane trip, first ride on the subway, first time in a foreign country. That is:a lot happening in a very short time.

 

One of the purposes of the trip to New York is to learn about festivals that occupy the city and involve the community, since, in the end of the year, Laboratório will produce a festival in Brumadinho, where Inhotim is located, and where these teenagers come from. That is why the partnership with the New Museum was so important. Every year, they promote a street festival. In this year’s 8th edition of this festival, we were invited to take part as volunteers in organizing the event.

 

The day we arrived, we went to the museum to meet the education team and the youngsters participating in a summer program, who would also work in the festival. They showed us the proposals for workshops that would be offered to the public. We created our own uniforms from T-shirts, visited part of the museum as well as the plaza where the event would take place.

Nosso grupo e os voluntários que fizeram a Block Party ser um sucesso. Foto: Alice Dias
Our group and the volunteers who made the Block Party a success. Photo: Shannon Phipps

In the following day, the place was transformed. Eight tents with tables, a stage and several helpful and cheerful volunteers were there!Each one of the teenagers from Laboratório stayed in one tent, together with a teenager from the New Museum and other volunteers. Each tent represented one of the workshops offered.The first challenge they faced was the language barrier. That, which at first was uncomfortable and awkward, slowly disappeared during the exchange of experiences that took place during the day.A smile, a look, a gesture, a song, or even they discovery of a mutual passion for Demi Lovato – young North-American actress and singer – were ways they used to connect with one another, shortening distances and differences. And, certainly, their familiarity with to technology also helped.All of a sudden, they all pulled out their smartphones with simultaneous translation to mediate communication. In the end, being a teenager in Brumadinho or in New York is not all that different!

Michele, uma das jovens do programa de verão do New Museum, usando o celular para minimizar as barreiras da língua. Foto: Alice Dias
Michele, one of the youngsters of the New Museum’s summer program, using the cell to minimize language barriers. Photo: Alice Dias

Click here to learn more about our trip. Laboratório Inhotim relies on a sponsorship by Banco Itaú.