Ernesto Neto, Residency July to December 2007
Born in 1964, Ernesto Neto lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.
The body, space and matter are the fundamental elements of his artistic approach, and his installations totally invest the spaces in which they are presented.
Ernesto Neto is interested in the relationships that are created between all the elements that make up his installations: the work, the viewer and the history and sensibility inherent in the exhibition space. The work functions as a boundary, allowing the viewer to perceive the process of creation and installation. The organic forms of his objects give off an impression of fragility and sensuality, floating above the viewer who finds himself totally engulfed by the installation. The work engages the viewer both physically (smell, touch, use...) and psychologically, becoming a contemplative and interactive space.
At Saché, Ernesto Neto has created a new series of sculptures made up of autonomous elements of different sizes and rounded shapes, inlaid one within the other, which seem to rise from the ground to become sculpture. Ernesto Neto chose a range of solid materials for this ensemble: featherboard, colored laminated wood, polyurethane foam, PVC and steel. These sculptures, entitled Play, are conceived as a construction game, with each new installation providing an opportunity to combine different forms, but once again posing complex questions of balance, tension and gravity in order to remain upright.
A major figure on today's Brazilian art scene, Ernesto Neto's work can be found in numerous collections, including the Tate Modern Gallery in London, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the MNAM Centre Pompidou, the Hirshorn Museum in Washington, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York...
Ernesto Neto represented Brazil at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001). In 2004, he designed the set for Views of stage, created by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Opéra Garnier.
His most recent exhibitions include: The Malmö Experience (Sweden) Taba Oca at La FIAC in Paris, the 5th Mercosul Art Biennial in Porto Alegre (Brazil) Tropicalia at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and in 2005 at the Domaine de Kerguéhennec and Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris.
In 2006, Ernesto Neto took part in the Festival d'Automne in Paris, where he designed a work entitled "Leviathan/Thot" for the Pantheon.
In 2007, he exhibited at Galerie Max Heltzer, and at MIMOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kagawa, Japan.
Photos: Guillaume Blanc