Event at the Palace (Daniel Rangel)
Having seen a large human skeleton, a tree, wooden poles, clouds, ghosts and nymphs… at the opening of the second edition of the Programa Ocupas, the Palácio da Aclamação is now occupied by the force of a natural phenomenon: the wind.
Evento is the first solo exhibition in Bahia by Rio de Janeiro artist Marcos Chaves. A leader in contemporary Brazilian art and one of the most important and active artists of his generation, Chaves was inspired by the proposal of the Programa Ocupas. This program aims to create new dialogues with the history, the collection, the architecture, and the surroundings of this building – a place with fantastic visuals, open to a thousand possibilities.
In Evento, Chaves creates an unusual, risky project, maybe the largest and most challenging exhibition of his career. He turns the wind into the protagonist, setting up a site-specific work that creates different effects through the spaces of the Palácio da Aclamação.
In addition to working with objects and installations, Chaves is also a sensitive photographer, who has photographed the space and its objects while being enchanted by the Palace and its collection. To execute the works exhibited here, he maintains the same creative process that made his other site-specific works recognized here and abroad: working with elements he found on-site. In this case, the elements are the furniture that is part of the existing collection of the Palácio. With them, he constructed a large mobile made up of beds, tables and chairs in the lobby, and a scene of devastation in the banquet hall. In the ballroom, the only empty space, the wind appears as if it were trapped, physically audible to visitors by the sound of a crystal chandelier that remains immobile, despite the wind.
In this show, Chaves makes a visual composition that is simulatiously, playful and fantastic, but that, does not try to hide his elaborate process. In Evento, the aesthetic effect is enhanced by the exposure of the artifices and structures that exist behind the installations, making the artist’s presence and intervention evident. There are no tricks. There are the fans, the iron grating, the steel cables – – all exposed, increasing the visual impact of the works.
With this exhibition, we launch the 2011 calendar of the Programa Ocupas with an initiative that achieves special success by opening this historic building to the public while transforming the Palácio da Aclamação into one of the most important exhibition sites in the city. This is a space with a different proposal, dedicated to innovative experiences, which is now starting to consolidate, obtaining excellent exposure in the media, both local and national – – including winning a prize (from the magazine Bravo, for the exhibition Faustus, by José Rufino).
With Marcos Chaves’ Evento, we begin the second edition of this Program. We ask permission and a blessing from lansã, queen of the winds, lightning and storms, for the opening of this exhibition.
Epa Hey I Oyá!
Daniel Rangel