29/9/2011
Olafur Eliasson
Different venues, Sao Paulo
Your body of work. The exhibition features 10 site-specific installations, in 3 different venues, that invite the public to experience perception of color, spatial orientation and other forms of engagement with reality: "a grid of experiences based on a temporary geography for Sao Paulo, creating a series of narratives". The title touches upon the vital role of the viewer in creating the meanings of the work, at the same time as it underscores the wide-ranging character of the content. Part of the program for the 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil.
curated by Jochen Volz
Olafur Eliasson shows Your body of work in São Paulo
From September 30, São Paulo will be hosting Your body of work, the first
Olafur Eliasson solo exhibition in South America. Conceived by the artist
especially for, and in response to, the Brazilian city, the exhibition features ten
site-specific installations that invite the public to experience perception of
color, spatial orientation and other forms of engagement with reality. The
exhibition is part of the program for the 17th International Contemporary Art
Festival SESC_Videobrasil.
Through to January 2012, Eliasson’s work will fill three venues in São Paulo:
the SESC cultural centers in Pompeia and Belenzinho, in the west and east of
the city, and the Pinacoteca do Estado, a centennial state-run museum
downtown. “The exhibition proposes a grid of experiences based on a
temporary geography for São Paulo, creating a series of narratives that
converge in the viewer’s experience”, says Jochen Volz, the artistic director of
the Inhotim Institute in Minas Gerais and curator of Your body of work.
According to the artist, the title Your body of work touches upon the vital role
of the viewer in creating the meanings of the work, at the same time as it
underscores the wide-ranging character of the content. “You work your whole
life, and everything you do and learn is etched into your body. You are a
viewer/producer of history itself, seen as you contribute, or give, more than
you receive”, explains Eliasson.
Vibrant City
Eliasson is known for interventions that draw the interest of a wider public
beyond the circuits of contemporary art, such as his New York City Waterfalls
(2008). He has experimented with propositions that imply increasingly more
direct contact with their urban settings. The starting point for the conception of
the Brazilian exhibition was the artist’s impressions and curiosities about the
different spaces he saw in São Paulo.
“São Paulo is vibrant, it has a very strong physical presence”, says Eliasson.
“Though the private sphere remains inaccessible, everything you think and do
is perceivable in the streets. In other cities, the public spaces tend to separate
very clearly from daily life.” In consonance with the artist’s sensations, the
project is drafted as an experience of the city, in dialogue with the architecture
of the spaces it occupies.
Three Venues
At SESC Pompeia, a former drum factory transformed into a cultural center in
the 1980s, Eliasson’s conceptions are met with the generous spaces the Italo-
Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi designed for the fruition of the local
population. The exhibition, which is spread throughout internal and external
areas, was devised to dialogue with the various uses of the venue as a spot
for reflection, learning, leisure and entertainment.
A set of works involving colour, light and smoke transforms this 1,500 meter-
squared center into a labyrinth of sensorial experiences. In the contiguous
exhibition area, configured as a cinema theater, Eliasson plays with the
concept of the after image – the counter-image that lingers on the retina when
exposed to light – and scenes of São Paulo taken by the Brazilian filmmaker
Karim Aïnouz.
At the recently inaugurated SESC Belenzinho, which caters to a region of the
city far less privileged in terms of leisure and cultural equipment, Eliasson
shows a rotating device that projects light stripes onto the surrounding space.
At the Pinacoteca, the work focuses on experiments with one of art’s most
classic tools - the mirror - to dialogue with the building’s architecture, originally
classical in style but reworked a decade ago by the award-winning architect
Paulo Mendes da Rocha.
The Eliasson exhibition will result in a book edited by the artist, curator
Jochen Volz and Associação Cultural Videobrasil, scheduled for publication
through SESC Editions in November. In addition to a photo record of all the
works installed and photographic series produced by Eliasson during his field
work in São Paulo, the book will also feature essays by Brazilian theorists,
establishing relations between different aspects of his work and local
production in such fields as art, science and architecture.
Eliasson’s oeuvre will also be the subject of a film in the Videobrasil Authors’
Collection series, which features essayistic documentaries on the work
processes of important contemporary artists, such as the South-African
William Kentridge, the North-American Coco Fusco and the Brazilian group
Chelpa Ferro. Scheduled for release in 2012, the film about Olafur, the
seventh in the series, will be directed by the Brazilian filmmaker Karim
Aïnouz, known for the films Madame Satã (2004) and O Abismo Preateado,
which screened during the Cannes 2011 Directors’ Fortnight.
Associação Cultural Videobrasil
Associação Cultural Videobrasil is an international center of reference for
contemporary artistic production in the geopolitical south. Created by the
curator Solange Oliveira Farkas, former chief-curator of the Museu de Arte
Moderna da Bahia, the association maintains a productive partnership with
SESC, a Brazilian institution geared towards nurturing culture. Together, the
organizations have produced such exhibitions as Joseph Beuys – A revolução
somos nós (São Paulo and Salvador, 2010/11) and Sophie Calle – Cuide de
você (São Paulo and Salvador, 2009).
Other fruits of this ongoing ACV-SESC partnership are the Videobrasil
Residencies Program, which selects artists for interchanges with partner
institutions in Brazil and abroad; the Videobrasil Authors’ Collection, a series
of documentaries about prominent artists; Caderno SESC_Videobrasil, an
annual publication on contemporary art; and FF>>Dossier, a series of on-line
artist profiles.
SESC
Created by businesspeople from the Brazilian Commercial and Services
association some 60 years ago, SESC – Commercial Social Service bases its
undertakings on a solid cultural and educational program with emphasis on
social innovation and transformation.
During the 1980s, SESC pioneered new models of cultural action and
highlighted the importance of education as a platform for social
transformation. The concretization of this premise came as the result of hard
work in the cultural field, in all its varied manifestations and for all possible
publics, across different age groups and social strata.
In the State of São Paulo, SESC has a network of 32 units, most of which are
cultural and sports centers. The entity also offers social tourism activities and
programs focused on health, environmental education and digital inclusion, as
well as special programs for children and the elderly.
Image: Olafur Eliasson, Seu planeta compartilhado, 2011 [Your shared planet]. Foto: Studio Olafur Eliasson. Cortesia do artista, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Nova York, neugerriemschneider, Berlim © 2011 Olafur Eliasson
contact
Décio Hernandez Di Giorgi
(+55 11) 3589 6212 (+55 11) 8255 3338 dgiorgi@uol.com.br
Teté Martinho
(+55 11) 9901 0375 (+55 11) 3645 0516 tetemartinho@videobrasil.org.br
Marcio Junji Sono
(+55 11) 3645 0516 (+55 11) 8417 6333 marcio@videobrasil.org.br
Opening: Sept. 30 | Friday
9:00 p.m.
Southern Panoramas
Olafur Eliasson – Your Body of Work
SESC Belenzinho
9:00 p.m. | Performances
Bandeira de água benta/bandeira de água comum (Deyson Gilbert)
Ponto de fuga (Felipe Bittencourt)
Corpo ruído #4 – Estudo para um soterramento (Paula Garcia)
SESC Belenzinho
SESC Belenzinho
Rua Padre Adelino, 1000 | Metrô Belém | Cep 03303-000 - São Paulo - SP
(55 11) 2076.9700 | email@belenzinho.sescsp.org.br | www.sescsp.org.br | 0800 11 8220
Tuesday – Saturday: 9:00 – 22:00 | Sunday and holidays: 9:00 – 20:00 | Free admission
SESC Pompeia
Rua Clélia, 93 | Pompeia | cep 05042-000 - São Paulo - SP
(55 11) 3871.7700 | email@pompeia.sescsp.org.br | www.sescsp.org.br | 0800 11 8220
Tuesday – Saturday: 9:00 – 22:00 | Sunday and holidays: 9:00 – 20:00 | Free admission
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
Praça da Luz, 02 | Luz | (55 11) 3324.1000 | www.pinacoteca.org.br
Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 17:30
R$ 6,00 / R$ 3,00 (students and over 60 y.o.) | Free admission on Saturday