INSTÁVEL
Ana Paula Oliveira, Geórgia Kyriakakis, Laura Belém, Laura Vinci, Marcelo Moscheta, Marina Weffort e Maurício Ianês
Photos: Eduardo Barcellos
[automatically translated]
unstable
“... we must remember that if the idea of a world made up of weightless atoms impresses us, it is because we have experience of the weight of things; just as we cannot admire the lightness of language if we do not know how to equally admire language endowed with weight.” Italo Calvino in Six proposals for the next millennium
According to the definition of physics, matter is that which has mass, which forms all things. Palpable or not, it is always made up of particles, occupies space and is subjected to a set of forces that cancel each other out, bringing stability prone to reacting or misaligning under the action of a new force. This is the principle for the works gathered in the exhibition, dealing with this lack of permanence, or with the imminence of deconstruction.
In Still not, by Ana Paula Oliveira, large plastic bags filled with water are suspended from wooden sleepers that rest on the walls and beams of the space. Inside the bags live fish of different species, colors and sizes. The set has a rough balance, everything seems on the verge of giving way; the sleeper threatens to slide down the wall, the bags are about to burst under the pressure of the water. Crossing the entire complex, we see the pipe that takes oxygen to the fish. As in a laboratory, their life is under control, even if it is partial.
Georgia Kyriakakis' production constantly refers to a topographical landscape, be it mountains or a horizon of water. In Helens of Oil, two glass amphorae of different sizes are suspended by the same steel cable, attached to a pulley. The smaller amphora is filled with oil, and the larger amphora is filled with oil until the assembly settles and level. Coordinates also stabilize across matter. In this case, the steel wool powder builds a mountainous horizon by leveling a set of tables outside their gravity axis, suspended by a steel cable.
Mona Lisa by Laura Vinci is made up of a set of glass basins stacked in groups or solitary, some empty, others filled with water. Connected by a copper pipe that draws in space, electrical resistances heat this water. The slow evaporation process forms a delicate mist that requires attention to be noticed. Despite presenting a permanent flow, matter is not fixed, it is always in transition; once transformed into vapour, only a small amount is condensed again in contact with the glass of the basins, returning to being liquid, and the rest is mixed with air; the work does not end with what is visible.
Marcelo Moscheta has been working with landscape and its representation for some time. The artist displaces and maps fragments of the landscape, as well as establishing relationships between images of different places. In MARÉ [vers.1.3], three images of maritime horizons projected on the wall, move up and down moved by an engine, to the sound of its own mechanism, and to the sound of the sea. What looks like an attempt to align with a single horizon never happens. In this way, a sensation of imbalance is created, reminiscent of the movement of the tide.
Laura Belém's Naufrágio video is a constant undoing. In it a detailed drawing of a caravel is slowly erased by a constant dripping of water. Drop by drop, for almost two long minutes, we watched the drawing disappear. In the end, only a large bluish water stain remains, and some shadows of the lines that formed the drawing, which no longer appear as a figure, bring only the memory of the image that was erased.
Maurício lanês problematizes issues related to language and communication, constantly dealing with the viewer's position in the face of an action or proposition by the artist. In “Untitled — silent area/ monologue area/ dialogue area”, proposals for the public are placed on the floor of the exhibition space. With this minimal intervention, the space can be activated, and that area becomes perceived in a different way. The work needs the observer, otherwise it does not materialize.
Marina Weffort's works bring a game of movement and staticity. In her objects, stones and cups are balanced on shelves, some articulated with lines, sustaining themselves through a fragile and precarious system. Others, surrounded by timecards, suggest a pulsing of the elements that compose them; everything is appeased, but a touch away from deconstructing. In the drawings, this established relationship that seems to want to merge the elements, or separate them to the point of destruction, becomes possible. In them, the physical limit of the object is overcome, the color of one invades the other and, at the same time that it merges the elements, it deconstructs the form.
In the exhibition, the artists use or subvert force, be it gravity, mechanics, or the very density of materials, which need to cancel each other out, or coexist in balance for the work to present itself. If almost all works advance towards space, those that do not advance in their final form create a place for the action of these forces, because without this void —which is also matter—they do not exist; space itself is subject to oscillation and accommodation. Ultimately, these forces are responsible for bringing us a sense of balance, and at the same time destabilizing it.
Douglas de Freitas