Rotas Brasileiras_Marli Matsumoto Arte Contemporânea_Stand D12

A little over fifty years ago, towards the end of the period known as the “years of lead” of the brazilian civic-military dictatorship, Rubens Gerchman, a central figure of the brazilian avant-garde at the moment, was returning from New York to Rio de Janeiro, with the script ready for his next poetic endeavor. Upon stepping onto a beach in the southern Atlantic – the ocean that also bathes and shapes the history of North America – he experimented with a new medium, the Super-8 portable camera, which provided him the autonomy to film Triunfo Hermético (14', 1972).

In the opening scene, perhaps revealing a sort of sentimental reunion with his delirious homeland, he captures letters floating on the waves and forming the word "Atlântida." In this film, the words water, earth, sun, air, woman, man are protagonists, reflecting the artist's specific imagistic needs.

The gallery's project for Rotas Brasileiras draws upon the lens of this history, using Gerchman’s video for the selection of works. Dialogues with contemporary artists are established based on conceptual similarities, but above all, by the fascination with the actions of natural phenomena in art.

In Mayana Redin's works, the sun predominantly appears in an allegorical context through the artist’s exploration of cosmogonic imaginings and the history of technical repertoires, such as welding. The transformation of matter by fire is also strongly present in Juan Casemiro’s new series, created with burned matches. The same quality of heat is evident in the work of Kuenan Tikuna, a young contemporary indigenous artist who, in addition to presenting celestial bodies, explores gender and territorial political issues, using natural pigments and fibers as the basis for her work.

The same water is present in the gouache-washed visuality of Francesco João's canvases, and in a sonorous way with the Acordes series, by Ricardo Basbaum, which uses words to juxtapose musical, imagetic and verbal layers. Frozen water, featured in the work of Natalie Braido, an artist who fundamentally uses organic materials in ephemeral works, also appears in Raphaela Melsohn’s pieces. After all, clay is merely a tenuous mix of water and earth, solidified after firing. 

The amalgamation of all these natural processes culminates in Amelia Toledo’s work. Although her current piece does not employ these materials as in some of her other established research, it does reflect the ritualistic aspect of her practice – almost a dance of the artist’s body to evoke forms. Similarly, Rubiane Maia’s video encompasses interdependent and caring relationships between humans and non-humans, such as minerals and plants.

Artists: Amélia Toledo, Anna Maria Maiolino, Francesco João, Juan Casemiro, Kuenan Tikuna, Mayana Redin, Natalie Braido, Raphaela Melsohn, Ricardo Basbaum, Rubens Gerchman, Rubiane Maia.