Eder Santos: Encyclopedia of Ignorance
Beginning on September 28, Galeria Brito Cimino will be hosting the video exhibition Enciclopédia da Ignorância [Encyclopedia of Ignorance], created by Eder Santos in collaboration with Evandro Rogers and Marcus Nascimento. This is the first solo exhibition of the Minas Gerais artist, and one that will most certainly set a milestone in São Paulo’s art calendar.
Originally presented at the 20th World Wide Video Festival, in Amsterdam (May 2003), the work was made possible thanks to the Prince Claus Fund Award granted by the Dutch foundation to persons and organizations that contribute to culture and development. Within this scope, the award provides financial support to publications and exhibitions in countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Santos’s installation was also shown in July 2003 at Palácio das Artes, in Belo Horizonte, MG.
Upon entering the exhibition venue at Galeria Brito Cimino, visitors will be surprised to find the white cube transformed into a black cube–a nearly infinite and buoyant space devoid of visible angles or borderlines. In contrast with the glaring outside light, the gallery space is plunged in total darkness, except for the dim lighting coming from video features. In the dark gallery, the silvery lighting brings into view the countless variables posed in the exhibition theme. Perhaps it would be impossible to address such subject matters as envy, addiction, humiliation, remorse, jealousy, and laziness under the bright sunlight. In the dark, the artist breaks down these feelings into layers, and then places them before the visitor’s eye, as key pieces for the immersion into the featured images.
The six video installations that make up the exhibition involve objects that provide the necessary support and interface for the intended images. In the installation titled “Remorso” [Remorse], the photograph of a smiley family sitting on the hood of a Volkswagen Beetle is projected on a rock. One could hardly find a more lasting material than a rock, which in fact harks back to immemorial times. Another video footage shows in three screens positioned side by side the sequenced movement of cigarette smoke. Placed in front of these screens, a table and three vacant chairs that make up the installation “Ciúme” (Jealousy] symbolize the uneffaceable presence of a third party in the life of a couple.
In “Preguiça” [Laziness], the image of a water drop is projected on a stopped-up sink filled with water. This is how the artist describes it: “A dripping faucet. Things in need of repair. The clogged up sink holds back time.”
While promoting a total integration of video and gallery, Eder Santos’s installation offers viewers a poetic plunge in a dark hole–one in which the video circuit takes us down a groundbreaking path of surprising encounters. As we stroll in the exhibition venue, we have a hard time determining with which installation we have more empathy. If on the one hand the darkness is alarming, on the other hand the image metaphors of our (unconscious) feelings such as jealousy, remorse, and envy; spasmodic temptations such as addiction and laziness, and also the feeling of humiliation are even more instigating.
This is the encyclopedia that the artist suggests we read–ignorance perhaps being the most manifest statement in the exhibition. Here the imagery turned into narrative assumes the role of annotations that set guidelines for the visitor.
One can hardly keep from being mesmerized by the magnetism of Paulo Santos’s soundtrack in conjunction with the plethora of moving images that irresistibly draw viewers into them. At this exhibition, like in a performance of sensibilities, viewers are part of the show.
Eder Santos has also entered his video Neptune´s Choice in the 14th International Electronic Art Festival (see www.videobrasil.org.br) to be held from September 22 through 28 at Sesc Pompéia. The opening of his exhibition at Galeria Brito Cimino is scheduled for the last day of the Festival. At these two events the viewing public will enjoy the opportunity to contemplate two magnificent works by the video artist in display in the city of São Paulo.
28.09.2003 to 11.10.2003
tuesday - friday, from 10 AM to 7 PM
saturday, from 11 AM to 5 PM
free admission
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Luciana Brito Galeria
Avenida Nove de Julho 5162
São Paulo Brasil 55 11 3842 0634