Rivane Neuenschwander

Fora de alcance

Oct 27 – Dec  8, 2012


Galpão Fortes Vilaça


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Press Release

Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present the new solo show by Minas Gerais artist Rivane Neuenschwander. Fora de Alcance [Out of Reach] features artworks from a wide range of media integrated by an installation in the form of a fence, which acts as an architectural device in the space, as well as a shield, directing the visitors in the way they approach the other works featured in the show.

A uma Certa Distância (Barreiras Públicas, São Paulo)[At a Certain Distance (Public Barriers, São Paulo)], is based on the artist’s research into public fences used to delimit construction areas and private property throughout Brazil. These barriers are generally characterized by the simplicity and impromptu nature of the materials, and nearly always do not fulfill the protective function they were designed for. The installation is constituted by found and constructed objects made of wood, glass, metal, concrete, stones and plants, and emphasizes randomness as a constructive principle. Laid out randomly, the work often surrounds an empty space or itself. It indicates a path while simultaneously integrating and reflecting the other artworks in the show.

In Progressões de Fogo [Progressions of Fire],Rivane creates intricate drawings with sheets of rice paper burned with incense, which are based on official graphs of the progressions of forest fires. Mancha de Óleo [Oil Spill] are abstract black and white photographs that mime satellite images of oil spills in the ocean. In Firmamento [Firmament], tomato pulp and seeds are used to create, on porcelain plates, lines and blotches that refer to the automatic connections of dot-to-dot drawings, but that also resembles constellations in a star chart. Based on abstraction, the three works touch in an indirect way on environmental issues. The aerial perspective on these questions is reinforced through the use of the wooden tables on which the artworks are displayed.

In Monstra Marina [Sea Monster] the public is invited to take away coins made of salt stamped in a hydraulic press. On their surfaces, the coins bear figures of different sea monsters taken from 16th-century documents and maps. The use of salt refers to the sea as well as the origin of coinage, since salt was used as a form of payment in ancient times. As in the other works, the sea monsters also point to the notion of detachment, whether physical, mental or symbolic.

“Rivane Neuenschwander’s practice merges painting, photography, film, sculpture, installation, and participatory actions in order to highlight phenomena that lie just outside our collective field of vision. Her preoccupations with mapping, measuring, and systems of categorization draw our attention to slight, often over looked but extraordinary facets of the natural and man-made worlds.”Says curator Enrique Juncosa, in the book produced on the occasion of the artist’s recent international and traveling show.

Rivane Neuenschwander is one of the most internationally renowned Brazilian artists of her generation; she participated in the 50th and 51st Venice Biennales, the 3rd SITE Santa Fé Biennial, the 5th Istanbul Biennial, the 24th and 28th editions of the Bienal de São Paulo, and others. She has held recent solo shows at the New Museum in New York, USA; the Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden; and at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland. Her works are present in large institutional collections such as those of Tate Modern, London; MoMA, New York; Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; MACBA, Barcelona, Spain; MAM São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, among others.

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