If you think you can visit the entire park in one single visit, beware that this might not be that easy. To experience all corners of the park, including the galleries and gardens, you currently need, on average, three days.As of next week, the visit will become even more interesting.
We will explain: every year Inhotim either changes exhibits in one of the four temporary galleries or opens permanent galleries.In September, the Institute presents new works at Galeria Lago (click here to learn more) and opens its eighteenth space dedicated to a specific artist, this time, it´s North-American artist Carroll Dunham.
His first contact with Inhotim curators happened in 2005 before the park was even opened for visitation. This meeting led to an invitation for Dunham to take his experience at Inhotim as a reference and create something new.
Born in New Haven (USA) in 1949, Carroll Dunhams production started in late 1970s in New York, where he still lives. The influences that marked his work during this trajectory range from expressionism to pop art, passing through surrealism, with a touch of eroticism and cartoon aesthetics.
The result of this mix was the creation of quite a unique style: scenes in which geometric drawings coexist with organic forms, in which abstraction dialogs with figurative art and the nature-culture duality is revealed with vibrant colors. The representation of the body with strong sexual content is also a striking feature in his production. This can be seen in the series of paintings of bathers, to which the artist dedicated countless canvases since the year 2000.
For Inhotim, Dunham has created a series of five paintings entitled Garden [2008]. The paintings were finished in 2008 and will be displayed for the first time now, at an old farmhouse located within the park property. The space has been adapted especially for the exhibit.
In addition to the black lines that describe the figures, the spiral shape has become a pictorial code in Dunhams work. (Carroll Dunham, Garden 1, 2008. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. Photo: David Regen)
Before becoming part of Inhotims permanent exhibits, Carroll Dunhams works have been shown in other institutions renowned in the art scene such as the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, the Musée d´Art Moderne, in Paris, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid.
The artist makes no assumptions about the future of art, or even that of painting.When asked about the theme by Blouin Artinfo, he replied: I have no clue about what lies in the future, but it seems as if people need images.
Plan your visit to Inhotim and visit the works that comprise Garden (2008).
Since June 27, Rio de Janeiro has witnessed the greatest international exhibit the city has ever seen. Organized by curators Rodrigo Moura, director of art and cultural programs at Inhotim, and Adriano Pedrosa, the artevida exhibit [literally, art&life] aims to tell the history of art based on references not found in major cultural centers. The exhibit features about 300 works of art by 110 artists from South America, Western Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some of them, such as Brazilian artists Lygia Pape, Hélio Oiticica and Cildo Meireles, can also be seen at Inhotim.
The name of the exhibit was not chosen by chance. For the neoconcretist movement that first appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s, art should establish dialogs and tensions related to aspects of life and of the world. This attitude was essential to form Brazilian contemporary art. On display at Casa França-Brasil, Parque Estadual Library and Parque Lage, the exhibit also expands to MAM Rio (Museum of Modern Art), starting this coming Saturday, July 19, with the opening of its second segment. Inhotims Blog talked to artevida curators, who told us a little bit more about the project. Read more below!
Inhotims Blog The exhibit gathers countries in the Southern Hemisphere to offer another look towards the history of art. How did this idea come about?
Adriano Pedrosa and Rodrigo Moura The research regarding the artists has been happening throughout the past several years. Many of the foreign and Brazilian artists are professionals we have worked with before. The sets and subsets of works were chosen based on knowledge and reflection on these works, but, above all, considering Brazilian perspectives. Thus, the section artevida (body), at Casa França-Brasil, has clusters of Brazilian and foreign works based on Bicho, Linha orgânica (both by Lygia Clark), on Tecelar (by Lygia Clark), on Parangolé (by Hélio Oiticica), generating close relationships that revisit the orthodox geometric abstraction, suggesting an organic and body-conscious form of thinking about the object and emphasizing the body as an activator of the artistic experience. On the other hand, in the section artevida (politics), thematic clusters are related to dictatorship regimes, war, violence, elections, censorship, demonstrations, work, feminism, racism, and seek this parallel between contexts which apparently are not connected, but that bear some kind of relationship with the Brazilian people.
IB How do the works chosen relate to hegemonic narratives in contemporary art?
AP and RM The exhibit looks towards the Brazilian production as a matrix and filter, so as to consider broader, more global relationships between different artistic contexts. We have prioritized this dialog with production hubs which are somehow closer to us, either because they share with us a colonial and post-colonial history, or recent history of authoritarian regimes, or, simply, because they are far from hegemonic production centers. There is a desire to untie an affiliation model that always goes through the center so that production can be legitimized. This doesn’t mean we deny our relationship with Eastern Europe and the United States at all.Actually, there are some artists from these regions present in the exhibit. What we propose are new dialogs, which have not yet taken place. If, in the first part, which we opened at Casa França-Brasil last month, this dialog happens by way of the body, whether through geometry or self-portraits, in the section that opens next Saturday at MAM Rio, this dialog happens through politics. This doesnt mean an evolution in time, but rather a difference, a modulation of the curatorial framework.
IB Some of the names featured in the exhibit are present in Inhotims collection, such as Hélio Oiticica, Geta Bratescu and Hitoshi Nomura. How does the Institutes collection dialog with this proposal to see art history from another angle?
RM It seems to me, this dialog happens in a very important way. As we mention in artevidas curatorial statement, this is not an exhibit of a thesis, but of many hypotheses. This polyphonic representation is something I learned working in the formation of the collection, when this happens all the time. The artists youve mentioned have a very important place at Inhotim, precisely because they found such fertile soil when it comes to dialogs with Brazilian artists, they are central to building a narrative of what Inhotim represents as art: Lygia Pape, Cildo Meireles and Hélio Oiticica, for instance, are represented with such important works in our collection. At Inhotim, weve recently delved into areas we just knew superficially before, such as Western Europe and Japan, which have not yet been completely revealed, but that start to appear in exhibits at the Institute. This is the case of the individual exhibit by Romanian artist Geta Bratescu, at Galeria Lago as of September, and Do Objeto ao Mundo – Coleção Inhotim, at Palácio das Artes in December and at Itáu Cultural next year. In these exhibits, we are going to show quite a lot of Japanese material that have great resonance with the art produced in Brazil in the same period.
Interested? Then plan to visit artevida!The exhibit will be open until September 21, 2014.
Rodrigo Moura (left) and Adriano Pedrosa (right) at Parque Lage, where part of the exhibition takes place. Photo: Leo Aversa
Starting this week until August 17, Oi Futuro in Belo Horizonte will receive the exhibit Gambiólogos 2.0 [Quick Fixers 2.0] a new version of the exhibit previously shown at Espaço Centoequatro in 2010, about the Science of Quick Fixing. For those who are not familiar with it, the term science of quick fixing defines the study of the Brazilian tradition of improvising and finding creative solutions to small everyday problems, as well as the application of these ideas to art and design.
The discussions in new exhibit, with about 40 works, is guided by three themes:improvisation in electronic art and the inclusion of low technology as a formal option; the idea of collectionism through accumulation or how artists have used modern world’s excess waste as a resource; and the influence of popular culture and handcraft in the world of plastic arts.
Artists whose works are present in Inhotims collection are among the names in the exhibit, such as Bahia-born artist Marepe, Spanish artist Sara Ramo and Minas Gerais-born artist Ganso, who is responsible for one of the most charming spaces at Inhotim, which is named after him. Bar do Ganso was fashioned around 1950s French bistros and gathers furniture by Brazilian designers such as Sérgio Rodrigues and Zanini, items found in thrift shops and antique stores, in addition to lamps and tables designed by the artist himself, especially for the Institute.
Style and art create the atmosphere of Bar do Ganso, at Inhotim. Photo: Ricardo Mallaco
It is impossible not to react to an artwork by Pernambuco-born artist Tunga. This was my first thought as I entered the gallery named after the artist at Inhotim. I am not sure if it is because of the smell of iron, which resembles blood, or for the metal that looks like hair or even for the beauty hidden in bones and the weft. The fact is I can define my relationship with contemporary art in before Tunga and after Tunga.
The truth is it is not easy artwork. But, as for me, nothing that enchants and shocks can be obvious. And when it comes to Tunga, not even a straw hat is ordinary. It feels as if the artist constantly invited me to open up my mind, to look beyond what I saw, to be carried away by the dance of the several songs I heard. For there I was able to see neither the beginning nor the end of the artwork. What I did see was continuous, such as the cooper strands, the braided chair, the glass on the mirror. The endless tunnel.
Parte interna da galeria, que leva até a obra “Ão” (1980)
Everything there seemed beautiful to me, even that which disturbed me. For, at the same time the magnet seemed to repel me, it also attracted me. A sort of steel lightness. A beauty that included senses other than just vision, which awakened the curiosity to look behind the cloth and which surprised me every time I looked.
Because it is impossible not to react to Tunga, I asked some visitors about the feeling the work provoked in them. Fear, ecstasy, doubt and admiration were the answers I got from perhaps slightly confused observers. What has this experience awakened in me? Tunga.
Testimony about the first time I entered Galeria Psicoativa Tunga.
Tunga was also the theme of Arte Brasileira TV program, aired on the GNT channel. Watch the video here and find out what the critics, collectors and the artist himself think about his work.
Marcos Reis Peixoto, or simply Marepe, was born in Santo Antônio de Jesus, a small town in the Recôncavo Baiano region. His works at Inhotim are related to the northeastern cultural identity and to the simplicity of his place of origin, however, these works go way beyond this. Rather than emphasizing on the drama of social problems, and perhaps even of the draught, Marepe potentiates discussions on the very stigmas created for the northeastern region.
Obra “A Bica” (1999), de Marepe
A Bica (1999), Cabra (2007) and Olê ô picolé (2007), the three works by the artist currently on display at Inhotim, allow visitors to experience aspects of the everyday life ennobled of meanings, which is common in this work. Marepe constantly uses materials that are not noble ones such as cardboard, rubber, beer cans and other everyday objects, building matter from ideas, from a form he likes to refer to as intuitive, despite the many influences present.
Obra “Olê ô picolê” (2007), de Marepe
By reutilizing products that gain new meanings when out of context, Marepe is constantly associated with French artist Marcel Duchamp, connected to Dadaism, an avant-garde modernist movement that started in the early 20th century. When conceptual art was decomposed and unfolded into philosophy, information, linguistics, mathematics, autobiography, and social criticism, it left a legacy in art history, and the artist uses this legacy to create works that translate his ideas, experiences and memories.
Obra “Cabra” (2007), de Marepe
His works are not appropriations of objects that acquire new symbolism; they are rather confections of objects similar to those used in the everyday lives of many people which, as art pieces, acquire new meanings. Marepe calls these symbolic recreations nécessaire, while Duchamp refers to them as ready-mades.
At the park, Marepes simplicity if often perceived with a certain degree of awkwardness. His works propose a dialog, cultural acknowledgment and reflection on recurring issues in contemporary art, with a Brazilian and northeastern twist at the same time.
Written by Beatriz Alvarenga, Daniela Rodrigues, Marília Balzani and Pedro Vinícius, Art and Education mediators at Inhotim
In February, the artistic theme visit proposes reflections on the works of Marepe on display at Inhotim. Check out the program here.
