EXERCISE FOR CURIOUS VIEWERS

steps, peepholes, salt crystals, stones, flowers, mannequin hand, glove and lights

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As Santander Cultural itself says, his building features a “typical banking architecture of the early 20th century.” To transform the historic building into a cultural center – or rather, to hang frames – false white walls were set up to minimize the imposing architecture, that combines elements of neoclassical, art nouveau and baroque-rococo styles. Visiting the museum in search of an idea, I decided to work on micro installations inside this false wall and install several peepholes so they could be observed. I searched for peepholes from different places and times, with different lenses and optical qualities. The holes in the wall were made at different heights and stairs were built so that the public could reach them. However one of them was installed quite high, almost unattainable, and another very low, so to activate not only the eye, but the whole body of the curious spectator. Inside the wall, salt crystals formed a lighted mountain; one hand held a common stone with an intriguing glow; one peephole showed a flower blossoming; another a constellation made of lights; a window of the building that was opened and thus allowed to see, from inside the museum, the square and the passers-by outside; another peephole simply revealed the cobwebs inside the institution. I thought, among many other things, of the privatization of nature: small universes created for a single observer each time …

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o vento dissipa as lembranças de uma realidade anterior, Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2015