The Citadel: a trilogy | Call me when you get there

    The Citadel: a trilogy | Call me when you get there

    Viewing Room
    Curatorship: Paulo Kassab Jr.
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    Untitled #15

    , 2013

    Fires

    Countless myths about the origin of fire -from Brazilian indigenous peoples to the Greeksmake allusion to its transforming power and latent threat. While in Greece it is Prometheus who steals fire from the Olympus and offers it to men, in the mythology of the Suruí Paiterei, it is the black bird, Orobab, which deceives the Mekô jaguar, owner of fire, and takes its flames to the humanity—in both cases bringing wisdom, but also misfortune. Even if it is essential to understand such allegories from the perspective of the values of the society in which they arise, through the similarity between them, we can follow traces that lead us to understand the ember as a landmark, symbol of the distinction between nature and culture.

    If there is a notion of sociocultural revolution based on the domain of fire, it is also from this that the first drawings appear, the embryo of our inventive capacity to think about external nature, imagine it and represent it with sticks of burnt wood, charcoal, on the walls of caves.

    Contemplating Kilian Glasner’s work as a whole is to peek at the history of drawing and understand its close connection with fire in its subversive but also creative power. This relationship appears in his work for the first time in 2010, in “The brilliant future of sugarcane”, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). In the installation, the artist fills the walls of the institution’s parking lot with drawings of a huge sugarcane plantation. Upon learning that Calouste Gulbenkian was also known as the “Lord of Oil” and convinced of the advantages of using renewable energy, Glasner makes visitors witness the headlights of their cars, reflected in the design, setting fire to the sugarcane fields.

    Untitled #23

    , 2013

    Untitled #13

    , 2013

    Untitled #18

    , 2013

    Four years later, the research intensifies when Kilian, instigated by the different forms of the flame, develops the series “Anatomy of Fire.” He appropriates this gaseous entity emitter of radiation and, with an impeccable execution in charcoal on paper, he exalts the fire in the fatality. An oil tanker on the high seas, the windows of a house, a flag and a hotel, of which ironically only the letters “HOT” of a sign remain, they blaze, and the sublime charm of fire takes over the scene. Those who only see the drama here are mistaken; the work insinuates a kind of remission of the material: the charcoal that emerges from the burning recreates on paper what was lost in the fire.

    It is curious to note that the idea of traces and the reference to the origin of the drawing had already emerged previously in the artist’s work. In 2009, upon being selected for the “Rumos Artes Visuais” (Itaú Cultural, São Paulo), Glasner asked, as a condition for the completion of his work, that he be granted a property outside the institutional exhibition space. The chosen place was a mansion in ruins on Thomás Carvalhal street, where he performed the installation “Future Street.” In the work, black roots and stalks drawn on the walls of the house join the crowns of real trees that outcrop through holes in the ceiling, windows, and destroyed walls. Empty of furniture, objects or portraits, the house is transfigured into canvas, and the walls/stones, marked with charcoal, tell what is imagined on the outside, or what deteriorates on the inside. If the empty house becomes a blank board, the burned debris appears as a tool. But what future does this street that houses only the wreckage of a house indicate?

    Détail du mur #3

    , 2014

    Le mur #5

    , 2014

    Le peuple du mur #4

    , 2014

    Contemplari 2b

    , 2015

    Daniel 4.10

    , 2015

    Sentinelle

    , 2015

    É essa mesma motivação de externalizar seus sentimentos através de paisagens que levou a arista a criar a série Call me when you get there. No último ano, devido à pandemia do Covid-19, a França, país que a artista vive, impôs rigorosas medidas de distanciamento social exigindo longos períodos de confinamentos. Diante da privação de deslocamento, Niang encontrou no Google Maps uma forma de continuar sua prática artística. Ela buscou imagens de lugares que lhe eram familiares e que refletissem seu estado de espírito. O resultado dessa viagem interior se traduz por capturas de telas de locais onde as pessoas parecem estar se desvanecendo. Com corpos incompletos ou com apenas traços e sombras de suas presenças, os habitantes dessa localidade específica tiveram seus registros distintos de outros roteiros explorados pela artista. E foi exatamente nesse território que Niang se deparou com a tradução de como se sentia.

    Quando deslocadas dos fins para os quais foram geradas, as cenas ganham novos significados e são capazes de originar identificações por parte do espectador. Essa investigação da artista se transformou em uma série que se aproxima de auto-retratos de suas vivências durante os confinamentos. As suas emoções se refletem igualmente pelas escolhas de apresentação de seu trabalho: imagens quadradas, impressas em pequenos formatos, com bordas brancas que delimitam seus espaços e emolduradas em caixas transparentes. A obra reflete, assim, um sentimento comum aos que vivenciaram as situações de clausura, em uma involuntária imersão em suas intimidades, dentro de superfícies extremamente limitadas.

    A partir da circulação do seu próprio corpo nos espaços que adentra ou nas deambulações de sua mente num imaginário próprio de mundo, Mame-Diarra Niang produz, de algum modo, seus auto-retratos-territoriais.

    Mame-Diarra Niang nasceu em Lyon e foi criada entre a Costa do Marfim, Senegal e a França. Ela participou da 33ª Bienal de São Paulo (2018), da 11ª Bienal do Mercosul em Porto Alegre, (2018) e das 11ª e 12ª edições da Bienal de Dakar (2014 e 2016).

    Continue #9

    , 2020
    mame-diarra

    Kilian Glasner
    (Recife, 1977)

    Born in 1977 in Recife, Brazil where he lives and works.

    He started his studies in the eighties, (still a child). And he won his first prize at the age of 21 at the Pernambuco Visual Arts Salon. At the age of 22 he moved to Paris where he graduated from the ecole des Beaux Arts. During this period he was a student of the artist Giuseppe Penone and held exhibitions in Paris, London, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

    Returning to Brazil in 2007, he joined Galeria Laura Marsiaj-RJ, Moura Marsiaj-SP and Mariana Moura. He won the Rumos Visuais award from Instituto Itau Cultural for his installation “Rua do Futuro”. In 2010, he was invited by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon to carry out a huge installation called “O Brilhante Futuro da Sugarcane”. He exhibited at Galeria Marco Antonio Vilaça after being awarded the Santander prize. He held solo exhibitions in Brazilian capitals with institutional sponsorship from Instituto Caixa Cultural, Itaú cultural, Santander Cultural, Cento cultural Banco do Brasil. In the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Rio Branco,
    Pernambuco, Curitiba, João Pessoa and Recife.

    In 2012 he returned to Europe and settled in the city of Berlin where he lived for two years. During this period he held exhibitions in Brussels at the Reinart Gallery, at the Brazilian embassies in London and Athens.

    He is currently represented by Galeria Lume in São Paulo, Galeria Paulo Darze, salvador and Garrido Galeria in Recife.

    Continue #18

    , 2020

    Continue #5

    , 2020

    Continue #10

    , 2020

    Untitled #15

    , 2013
    Sahel Gris,
    impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
    22 x 32 x 6 cm,

      Untitled #23

      , 2013
      Sahel Gris,
      impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
      22 x 32 x 6 cm,

        Untitled #13

        , 2013
        Sahel Gris,
        impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
        22 x 32 x 6 cm,

          Untitled #18

          , 2013
          Sahel Gris,
          impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
          22 x 32 x 6 cm,

            Détail du mur #3

            , 2014
            At the wall,
            impressão de pigmento a jato de tinta em papel de algodão 300g,
            37 x 56 x 3 cm,

              Le mur #5

              , 2014
              At the wall,
              impressão de pigmento a jato de tinta em papel de algodão 300g,
              37 x 56 x 3 cm,

                Le peuple du mur #4

                , 2014
                At the wall,
                impressão de pigmento a jato de tinta em papel de algodão 300g,
                37 x 56 x 3 cm,

                  Contemplari 2b

                  , 2015
                  Metropolis,
                  tinta de pigmento de arquivo em papel de pano de fibra de platina,
                  44 x 63 x 3 cm,

                    Daniel 4.10

                    , 2015
                    Metropolis,
                    tinta de pigmento de arquivo em papel de pano de fibra de platina,
                    44 x 63 x 3 cm,

                      Sentinelle

                      , 2015
                      Metropolis,
                      tinta de pigmento de arquivo em papel de pano de fibra de platina,
                      44 x 63 x 3 cm,

                        Continue #9

                        , 2020
                        Call me when you get there,
                        impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
                        15 x 15 cm,

                          Continue #18

                          , 2020
                          Call me when you get there,
                          impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
                          15 x 15 cm,

                            Continue #5

                            , 2020
                            Call me when you get there,
                            impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
                            15 x 15 cm,

                              Continue #10

                              , 2020
                              Call me when you get there,
                              impressão de pigmento de arquivo em papel william turner,
                              15 x 15 cm,