In his first solo show in Brazil, British artist Cerith Wyn Evans presents artworks that explore the visual arts, music, cinema and literature by way of an interdisciplinary approach.
Considered one of the top artists currently active worldwide, Wyn Evans began to garner notice in the 1990s when he was part of the group Young British Artists, together with talents such as Damian Hirst and Tracey Emin. His entire oeuvre is structured intertextually. Wyn Evans is not the author of the text, images or songs present in his artworks; he appropriates and orchestrates what was produced by someone else previously.
Adopting various supports, such as installations, sculptures and photographs, Wyn Evans presents an exhibition that maneuvers the spectator, making him/her pass through a maze of references. In the artwork … later on they are in a garden … the artist uses neon-light letters to reproduce an excerpt from the text of the photo-novella by Chris Marker, La Jetée, 1962. Marker's short film deals with the search for authentic memory; in a fantastic universe, a man tries to tell his girlfriend about a dream in which he foresees his own death. Wyn Evans uses neon constantly, for creating small and simple sculptures as well as large and complex installations.
In After La Monnaie Vivante – whose title refers to the book La Monnaie Vivante by artist/philosopher Pierre Klossowski – Cerith projects an image from a 1970 play based on Klossowski’s text. The image slowly transforms, going from negative to positive and vice versa at a slow pace. In the photo, a woman wearing only lingerie is sitting on a bearded man’s lap.
The artist also presents an artwork consisting purely of sound, which is made based on the compilation of segments from various recordings of contemporary erudite music. He digitalizes, cuts and overlays these pieces, creating a new one-hour-long polyphonic composition. The presence of musical language is complemented by the execution of a performance at the opening of the exhibition: invited by Wyn Evans, flutist Susan Stenger will play the experimental compositions “Density 21.5” by Edgard Varese and “Fontana Mix” by John Cage.
Cerith Wyn Evans was born in Wales, and currently lives and works in London. His participations in group exhibitions have included the 1995 and 2003 Venice Biennales, the 9th Istanbul Biennial in 2005, and the 11th Kassel Documenta in 2002. His most recent solo shows were held at MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, in Leon, Spain, 2008; ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK, 2006; Kunsthaus Graz, 2005; Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, 200; and Frankfurter Kunstverein, also in 2004.
