CAO GUIMARÃES AND MANOELA MEDEIROS

In presenting the work of Cao Guimarães and Manoela Medeiros, the exhibition entwines productions that differ in terms of their disciplines. Guimarães works with capturing occurrences (poetic, accidental, natural), through photographic and cinematographic images, while Medeiros works with intentional material occurrences within the typologies of painting and exhibition space.

Cao Guimarães’ works can be understood as an expansion in the manipulation of photographic film, using super-8 cameras, video and photography. Through an attentive and affectionate gaze, Guimarães’ oeuvre constructs a poetic inventory of varied and visually striking moments captured from everyday life, expanding the notion and vocabulary of the documentary form.

The exhibition includes new works such as Ventania (2004/2021), where the sequence and juxtaposition of images, characteristic of photography, compensate for the absence of movement. The presentation also showcases iconic videos such as O pintor joga o cinema na lata de lixo (2008) and Quarta-feira de Cinzas (a collaboration with Rivane Neuenschwander, 2006), alongside more recent works including Reza and Vovô (2016) that in the words of Consuelo Lins propose, ’“micro narratives” or “quasi narratives,” “fragments of the characters” and of the artist’s experiences, often ephemeral sensorial configurations, on the verge of disappearing.’

On this occasion, Manoela Medeiros will exhibit her work at Nara Roesler for the first time, marking the beginning of her representation by the gallery. In her practice, Medeiros investigates the ambivalence between the act of constructing versus destructing, excavating surfaces such as the walls of exhibition spaces as a means of unveiling the underlying colours and materials that had been applied over the years and forgotten. Medeiros seeks to create new grounds for one’s temporal experience in exhibiting successive layers that lay within architectural structures, with each carrying the memory of its time.

The ‘Ruínas’ series, also on view at the exhibition, embodies the artist’s process of work whereby she layers paint and plaster onto a surface, subsequently removing parts so as to create paintings that evoke the physical impact of time on architectural structures. In the body of work titled Continentes, Medeiros creates imaginary maps using wall fragments. In addition to her plaster and concrete sculptures, Medeiros will also present two site specific installations where the artist intervenes directly onto the material surface of the exhibition space.

Cao Guimarães’ now referential work, which records accidental occurrences, and Medeiros’ investigation into the effects of time on artistic materialities—such as painting and gallery—, collide and coincide as poetic forms of archeologies in the present.

Nara Roesler Curatorial Nucleus — Artistic direction by Luis Perez-Oramas

Lydia de Santis — Head of curatorial affairs

Rafaela Ferreira — Head of institutional relations

Irene McAllister — Curatorial associate