Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel is pleased to present O Sagrado é Amor [The Sacred is Love], the new exhibition by Ernesto Neto at our Galeria site. The artist shows wearable sculptures and an installation that invite the public to slow down the chaotic rhythm of urban life and to enjoy moments of introspection, calming the mind and activating the senses.

For Neto, the manifestation of the sacred happens in meditative states, through a deep relation with nature. Both the fabric that intertwines to form the crochet pattern and the choice of colors used by the artist evoke this relation. On the ground floor of the Galeria, Neto presents a series of works that can be worn by the public. Recebo o Seu Amor, Enquanto Você Recebe o Meu [I Receive Your Love, While You Receive Mine] is an amoeboid form installed on the wall that extends in two arms, each with a kind of tiara at the ends. Filled with quartz crystals, these tiaras may be handled – the visitor must place them on the head in order to connect with the work, with the other person, and in a broader sense, with the sacred itself. In a similar way, Entre o Céu e a Terra Estamos Nós (Iamaê) [We Are Between Heaven and Earth (Iamaê)] invites the visitors to sit on a wooden bench and wear the artwork on their shoulders.

Três Broto-Cantos e Uma Dança (Treveste) [Three Bud-Songs and One Dance (Treveste)] is a sculpture that holds a heavy sphere of aquamarine in its interior. Three people must wear it at the same time negotiating the movements in order to maintain the balance that prevents the stone from falling while its weight pulls the wearers to the center. The group taking part in the experience establishes relations of trust and dependence, so that, just as in nature, they may equalize antagonistic forces.

On the second floor, the public is invited to enter the installation O Sagrado é Amor and to sit around the tree-sculpture. The room is dominated by an intense red, which the artist associates with the basic chakra, the one responsible for physical energy. The smell of Indian cloves and bay leaves is also strong, to which therapeutic properties are attributed, such as air cleansing and stress relief. In this ambient, the experience is completely immersive: all the senses are sharpened and the piece allows the participant to reconnect, feel warmth, smell fragrances, relax, and listen to the silence. In the artist’s own words: “in this moment of turbulence that we are living, in which the cacophony of shallow opinions, verbal violence, and expressions of hate are part of our daily lives, it is necessary to regain introspection and contact with the self in search for a more harmonious sociability, thus including spirituality in our daily lives.”

Ernesto Neto was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, where he still lives and works. Among his recent solo shows the following are highlighted: Boa, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki, Finland, 2016); Rui Ni / Voices of the Forest, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art (Aalborg, Denmark, 2016); Aru Kuxipa | Sacred Secret, TBA21 (Vienna, Austria, 2015); The Body that Carries Me, Guggenheim Bilbao (Bilbao, Spain, 2014); Haux Haux, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (Remagen, Germany, 2014); Hiper Cultura Loucura en el Vertigo del Mundo, Faena Arts Center (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2012); La Lengua de Ernesto, MARCO (Monterrey, Mexico, 2011) and Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Mexico City, 2012); Dengo, MAM (São Paulo, 2010). Group shows include the Biennials of Venice (2017), Lyon (2017) and Sharjah (2013). His work is present in several important collections such as: Center Georges Pompidou (Paris), Daros Latinamerica (Zurich), Inhotim (Brumadinho), Guggenheim (New York), MOCA (Los Angeles), MoMA (New York) (Madrid), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Tate (London), and TBA21 (Vienna), among others.