Galeria Fortes Vilaça is proud to present a new solo exhibition by Iran do Espírito Santo, which brings together sculptures and an installation. The title in Portuguese alludes at one and the same time to screw threads (fuso mecânico), and to time zones (fuso horário) with which we are familiar, and their relation to the theme of time, which the artist presents under three distinct conceptions: historical, cosmic and existential. With this project, Espírito Santo also revisits recurring themes in his research, such as the correlation between the industrial development imposed by the advance of modernity, as well as contemporary aesthetic and its implications.

Installed on the ground floor of the gallery, Base Fixa [Fixed Base] is one of the artist’s most ambitious sculpture projects to date, where he invokes the sheer magnitude of the physical scale through a series of parts made of stainless steel, which put together weigh more than a ton. Curiously, these four sets of nuts and bolts (enlarged to eighteen times their original size) were produced with the same traditional machinery, which they generally are a part of, disgorging classic industrial hierarchy itself. The screws mark out an area in the shape of a square in the exhibition space, alluding, not by chance, to a stationary base to which they are affixed, while the helical form (of the screw) point to infinite movement. This in turn generates a tension which the artist describes as a “conflict between thrust and retraction, movement and reaction forces.”

The overt materiality of Base Fixa [Fixed Base] may be contrasted with the ethereal character of the works on display on the second floor. Cúpula [Dome] is a crystal sculpture inspired by old clocks, which establishes a counterpoint between its original function, that of protecting timekeeping, and the way it explores the notion of time in something that is suspended and solidified within its own reliquary. The work Fuso, which lends its name to the title of this exhibition, on the other hand, is a site-specific installation produced directly on the walls. As is customary in the artist’s practice, the work includes/shows more than forty shades of grey, painted with precise, straight bands. In this work, Iran do Espírito Santo works on parallel surfaces to create inverse, complementary images. In this way, he alters the incidence of light on architecture, altering the perception of physical space. Positioned between these two poles, spectators become not only into a witness, but also an integral part of the setting of the installation.

During the opening of the exhibition, Iran do Espírito Santo will launch his most recent monograph, entitled Iran do Espírito Santo / Desenhos / Drawings, which encompasses his extensive body of works on paper. Published by Editora Cobogó and with the text written by curator Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, the edition presents a chronological frame which comprises a selection of over 130 works.

Iran do Espírito Santo was born in Mococa, São Paulo, in 1963, and currently lives and works in São Paulo. His numerous solo exhibitions include: Playground, Public Art Fund, New York (USA, 2013); Recuo, Capela do Morumbi, São Paulo (2013); Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2007); IMMA, Dublin (Ireland, 2006); MAXXI, Rome (Italy, 2006); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (Mexico, 2004). The artist has participated in the following biennials: Bienal do Mercosul (2009 and 2005), Bienal de São Paulo (2008 and 1987), Venice Biennale (2007 and 1999), Biennale de Montreal (2007) and Istanbul Biennial (2000). His oeuvre can be found in several important (private and public) collections, such as MoMA (New York), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Cifo (Miami), MACBA (Barcelona), TBA21 (Vienna), The Israel Museum (Jerusalem), Inhotim (Brumadinho), MAM (São Paulo), MAM (Rio de Janeiro), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), MAC-USP (São Paulo), among others.