Descripción de la Exposición
Logan Center Exhibitions presents an exhibition by artist Cinthia Marcelle and filmmaker Tiago Mata Machado. Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence will be on view at the Logan Center Gallery from September 8 through October 29, 2017. Hailing from Brazil, and having individually made significant contributions to the worlds of contemporary art and cinema, Marcelle and Mata Machado are longtime collaborators. This is the first time their suite of moving image works produced since 2008 is being shown together in the US. Presented in a dynamic installation that powerfully choreographs image and sound, the works on view portray different contested spaces and extend their emotive qualities into the gallery.
“Marcelle and Mata Machado’s formable collaboration has produced significant moving image works that we will be talking about for years to come” said Yesomi Umolu “This exhibition is particularly timely because the question of rupture addressed throughout bears a direct relationship to our fraught political moment. While not seeking to offer concrete answers for dealing with recent events, the exhibition provides an imaginative rendering of the breakdown of social contracts”
The earliest work in the show, Black Hole (2008) depicts two opposing air currents scattering a mass of white powder across a black ground. From this a series of abstractions emerges, evoking the familiar monochromatic silhouettes of planetary constellations and Rorschach tests. In the constant push and pull between forces seen and unseen, the video offers subtle commentary on the shifting dynamics between individuals and opposing positions. Moreover, this work is emblematic of the negotiation that occurs between the collaborators and their distinct approaches to visualizing the world. Marcelle and Mata Machado have remarked that their differences provide a productive terrain from which to create work together.
Confronting the poetics and politics of urban life in Brazil and other global locations, The Century (2011) and One Way Street (2013) are interrelated pieces that provide different viewpoints on a shared event—a street protest. The former focuses on a crescendo of street detritus including helmets, rocks, trashcans, clothing, and tires thrown into the spectator’s field of view, whilst the latter offers the reverse shot of a group of “black bloc” protesters hurling objects beyond the camera’s frame. These two works function as an anatomy of a protest, deconstructing its actions and impact on civic space. Yet, no information is given on the underlying cause of such an event, highlighting the spontaneous and often unwieldy process that leads to a complete breakdown of social order. Further contending with the invisible bonds and rules that keep people and by extension our social milieu together, Community (and the other process) (2016) presents two versions of an orderly line on the precipice of rupture, one depicted through a group of individuals standing in wait, and the other through an animated line drawing.
Through compellingly staged and abstract scenes of order and chaos, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence speculates on the potential for revolution in everyday life. In doing so, the exhibition attends to the artists’ reflections on violence (and by extension anarchy) as a means to undercut the forces of law, power, and capital.
Accompanying the exhibition are two public programs: Marcelle gives a special tour of the exhibition during the opening reception taking place on Friday September 8, 6-8pm at the Logan Center gallery; and on Saturday October 7 at 2pm in the Logan Center’s Performance Penthouse, Brazilian curator Thiago de Paula Souza will deliver a talk on the exhibition. This event is presented as part of the Logan Center’s 5 Year Anniversary Birthday Bash.
Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence is presented by Logan Center Exhibitions and curated by Yesomi Umolu, Exhibitions Curator. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
The exhibition will be on view September 8 until October 29, 2017 at Logan Center Gallery, located at the University of Chicago’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637. Exhibitions are always free and open to the public. For more information and details about related programming, visit arts/uchicago.edu/logan/gallery or follow Logan Center Exhibitions on Facebook and Instagram @logancenterexhibitions.
Related Programming
Opening reception and artist tour
Friday, September 8, 2017, 6–8pm (Logan Center Gallery)
Please join us for an artist tour with Cinthia Marcelle followed by a reception to celebrate the opening of Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence.
Talk: Thiago de Paula Souza on Divine Violence
October 7, 2017, 2pm (Logan Center Performance Penthouse)
Please join us, and Brazilian curator Thiago de Paula Souza for a talk on the exhibition Divine Violence.
About the artists
Cinthia Marcelle lives and works in São Paulo, and graduated in Fine Arts from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (1996–1999). Marcelle recently participated in the 11th Sharjah Biennial (2015), and represented Brazil in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). Recent solo exhibition include MoMA PS1 (2016), NY; Secession, Vienna (2014); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil [CCBBR], Rio de Janeiro (2013); Pinchuck Art Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine (2012). Marcelle’s work has been part of significant events and group exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2015); Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro (2013); the second New Museum Triennial, New York (2012); Tate Level 2 Gallery, London (2012); the Bienal de Lyon (2007); Panorama da Arte Brasileira, São Paulo (2007) and Madrid (2008); and the IX Bienal de la Habana (2006). Cinthia Marcelle has been awarded relevant International Prizes, the Future Generation Prize from the Victor Pinchuck Foundation (2010) and the TrAIN artist in residency award at Gasworks, London (2009).
Tiago Mata Machado is a Brazilian film critic, curator and filmmaker. Holding a Masters in Multimedia from the Institute of Arts of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), he was a film critic for the newspapers O Tempo (1996–2000) and Folha de S. Paulo (2000–2006). As a curator, he organized the film programs Vanguards/Neovanguards and Subversives at the 11th and 12th Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festivals and Collective Films / 68 at Forumdoc.BH.2010. He directed the medium length film Curra Urbana (1998) and the feature films O Quadrado de Joana (2002) and The Residents, which premiered internationally at the 61st Berlin Film Festival – Berlinale (2011).
About Yesomi Umolu, Logan Center Exhibitions Curator
Yesomi Umolu is Exhibitions Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, where she is also a lecturer in the humanities division. Specializing in global contemporary art and spatial practices, Umolu recently curated Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts (2017) at the Logan Center Gallery. Prior to joining the Logan, Umolu was Assistant Curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU where she curated Material Effects: Contemporary Art from West Africa and the Diaspora (2015–16), John Akomfrah: Imaginary Possessions (2014) and The Land Grant: Forest Law (2014) with Ursula Biemann and Paulo Tavares. Umolu was previously Curatorial Fellow for Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis where she curated The Museum of Non Participation: The New Deal (2013) featuring works by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler. Umolu has held curatorial positions at the 8th edition of the European biennial for contemporary art Manifesta and the Serpentine Gallery, London. Her writing has appeared in numerous catalogues and journals, including Art in America, After image: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism and the Studio Museum in Harlem’s Studio magazine. Umolu received an MA with honors in Architectural Design from the University of Edinburgh and an MA with Distinction in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London. She is a 2016 recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellowship. Umolu is a member of the board of trustees of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago.
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