Ver(a)cidade

Translates as The Urban Scene, or The Urban Seen.

A collective exhibition that brought thirteen artists to the Caixa Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro, each one with their own interpretation of the urban scene. I chose to occupy the space in a way that bound the show’s two floors together, interacting with the most impactful architectonic elements in Caixa Cultural: the hall’s columns and the central stairway. My participation can be seen as three different works, or as one with changes of medium and strategy.

Behind the stairs one would find what seemed to be black curtains with transparent areas, creating an oneiric drawing of Rio’s downtown architecture, a work called Moucharabieh, like the Arabic window. The drawing builds a landscape where only the windows appear, as if it were a dark night and all the lights were on. However, through those transparent areas one sees a drawing behind the curtains, showing a stairway that leads to an old building with many other stairs and little secrets, inspired by Rio’s old architecture, Arabic moucharabiehs and Piranesi’s etchings.

In the central stairway I drew moving passengers taken from observations of the city’s day to day downtown. I used gouache paint, hence the images were vulnerable to the visitors’ intervention.

At last, when the spectator arrived at the second floor, one could see an image made of drawings glued over the central columns. The drawings had an anamorphic effect, so from some points of view it was possible to see a landscape floating over the main hall.

I worked not only as an artist, but also as executive producer, accompanying every phase of the project’s realization.