Geraldo de Barros | Jogo da Memória

Memory, as we know, is selective. Made of the layers of a life, it records that life – its organization. It’s a defense for the unconscious. Empty, full, empty, full – such is memory. In memory, emptiness is never nothing; something always remains. (From the opening of the documentary Sobras em Obras by Michel Favre, 1999.)

Luciana Brito Galeria is presenting Jogo da Memória [Memory Game], a new exhibition by Geraldo de Barros (1923–1998), organized by the Arquivo Geraldo de Barros (Fabiana de Barros and Michel Favre). This is the first exhibition ever to feature the complete collection of the Sobras series (1996–1998 / 2024) – the Brazilian artist’s final body of work, regarded as a milestone of experimentation in his career. The full set comprises 281 pieces, arranged in the exhibition space to enable a deeper understanding of the complexity of Geraldo de Barros’s photographic practice.

In the gallery’s pavilion, under the direction of the Arquivo Geraldo de Barros – organized by Fabiana de Barros and Swiss filmmaker Michel Favre, with the help of Ricardo Amado – the Jogo da Memória installation invites visitors on a journey through the artist’s practice, revealing new relationships among the Sobras, the empty spaces of the cutouts, and the multiple layers of time and memory that run through his work. The game it proposes is also an invitation to imagination – a reconstructive exercise in which the viewer’s gaze becomes an active part of the creative process, extending the life of the images and, with them, the memory of the artist himself.