Carmela Gross + Lais Myrrha

Carmela Gross

Flooding the space with a red light, the phrase Real People / Are Dangerous (2008-2018) made in neon and metallic structure is divided into two parts. In the first conception of this work, the São Paulo-based artist, Carmela Gross, had designed the phrase for the city with tubular lamps on two pedestrian walkways on different streets in New Zealand. The spatial discontinuity between these two walkways provided an amplitude in the general sense of the phrase. However, only half of the project was made. Its complete meaning was, on the occasion, rescued in a set of two posters.

For this new installation, the two sentences are transported into the private space; approximately at a short distance, but still separated into two contiguous and perpendicular walls. Unlike the public space, the sentence here seems to assume a subjective tone, illuminating an inner space. The more direct relationship between these two sentences ends up indicating an affirmative reading, reflecting the rhetoric of fear that dominates and controls many aspects of contemporary life.

Lais Myrrha

After presenting Estudo de Caso (2018) at the 12th Gwangju Biennale, where the artist balances two emblematic columns of Brazilian architecture – that of the Alvorada Palace by Oscar Niemeyer supported by the Colubandê Farm column in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a landmark of the colonial architecture – now, Lais Myrrha occupies auroras with a new step in the column of Alvorada. Unlike the Gwangju version, where the columns had a scale of 1: 1, here the pieces conform to space, maintaining a gigantic dimension.

Study on a built future starts with the artist’s interest in architecture – mainly the relations with modern Brazilian architecture – but also, as is often the case in her works, a dialectical correspondence between constructive power and ruins. It is evident that the work understands the relation of architecture as forms of power and domination, and projects a historical dimension in the formation of a “national identity”.

It is now possible to imagine what kind of future is being formed along these lines and if this construction is no longer, since its foundation, an unsustainable project.

Carmela Gross (São Paulo, 1946) is a teacher and a visual artist. She holds a degree in Plastic Arts from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado (1969), a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of São Paulo (1981, 1987). She held individual exhibitions at the most important institutions in Brazil, such as the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Casa França-Brasil, in Rio de Janeiro, Pinacoteca Station, São Paulo, Centro Universitário Maria Antonia, Museu da Cidade, Tomie Ohtake Institute, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil of Rio de Janeiro, among others. She has participated in 8 editions of the São Paulo International Biennial since the 60’s, in addition to the II Biennial of Contemporary Art in Moscow in 2007 and, in the same year, the Encounter between the Seas: São Paulo-Valencia Biennial in Spain. She also participated in SCAPE 2008, Christchurch Biennial of Art in Public Space, New Zealand (2008) and the 5th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre (2005). She has works in public and private collections, such as São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, USP Museum of Contemporary Art, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, MoMA – Museum of Modern Art (New York), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston) Instituto Inhotim and others. He made permanent works in the city of Laguna, in Porto Alegre and in Paris.

Lais Myrrha holds a PhD since 2015 by the School of Fine Arts of UFMG, and graduated in Visual Arts from the Guignard School, UEMG, in 2001. She has received several prizes such as I Bolsa Pampulha (2003), Prize Projéteis, Rio de Janeiro (2007); the Atos Visuais Brasilia Prize and the Stimulus Scholarship for the Visual Arts (both awarded by Funarte also in 2007). Shee also received an award in the I Itamaraty Contest of Contemporary Art, Brasília (2011) and Art and Heritage Award, by IPHAN / MinC / Paço Imperial of Rio de Janeiro (2013). Participated in important exhibitions such as the 8th Mercosur Biennial, Porto Alegre (2011); 18th International Festival of Contemporary Art of Videobrasil (2013); Marcantonio Vilaça Award at the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo (MAC-USP, 2015); 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); Avenida Paulista, MASP (2017) and Condemned To Be Modern, part of the Pacific Standard Time: LA / LA, held by the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles, USA. In 2013 she held the individual “Instability Zone” at Caixa Cultural São Paulo and Brasília (2013/2014). Installed the “Gameleira Project 1971” at Pivô, in 2014.