After Lucia Koch’s doors and windows late last year and Daniel Buren’s stripe-and-square interventions in March and April, Galeria Nara Roesler in Rio de Janeiro proceeds with its line of exhibits that discuss the appropriation of space and the art-architecture connection in Fatos Arquitetônicos (Architectural Facts), a solo exhibit by Eduardo Coimbra. The show will run from 08.05 to 05.06.2015, featuring eleven especially created, never-before-shown works.
Following up with his recent research work, Coimbra will reinterpret past interventions in public spaces such as Praça Tiradentes, a square in Downtown Rio, and the CCBB in Brasília. Composed of cut-out cube-boxes, these large-sized pieces integrate the Esculturas(Sculptures) series, conversing with passersby and with urbanism in itself.
Inside the gallery, the connection with architecture takes on a subtler dimension. The artworks in the new series, Fatos Arquitetônicos, are wall reliefs formed by rectangular or square-shaped areas and volumes, featuring white, black, or black-and-white candy-striped surfaces. Arranged on the vertical plane of the walls, these reliefs afford viewers a frontal aerial view of an agglomeration of cubic elements and superimposed planes that allude to imaginary urban setups. The creation of mockups has long been a practice within the artist’s vocabulary.
The black, the white and the stripes are assumed for their minimalism and neutrality. As a third color unto themselves, the stripes dictate visual rhythms that enhance the perceptual effect of the distance and depth of architectural elements. In the large-scale sculptures, the juxtaposition of said planes created spaces to be traversed by the body. Conversely, in the new reliefs, it is up to the viewer’s gaze to run across the surfaces and discover paths and connections between elements.
In the gallery’s exhibition facilities, the Architectural Facts are positioned on the walls like individual events against a large background. The surface of the room’s walls is taken by black, white and candy-striped lines and planes that bring the connections present within the reliefs into the actual physical venue. By impregnating the space, Coimbra establishes the subversion of the flat panoramic continuity of the walls with the vertically applied reliefs.
The set comprises four reliefs measuring 90 x 90 x 16 cm and a larger one measuring 135 x 225 x 25 cm. Their formats and internal arrangement create direct connections with the lines and planes painted onto the walls.
The exhibition caps off with another series of works, Fatos Geométricos (Geometric Facts). Also wall-mounted, the set pushes the boundaries that separate drawing and object. The pieces are black and white, just like Fatos Arquitetônicos, featuring all-straight lines and planes in high- and bas-relief. Measuring 40 x 40 x 5 cm, the works are installed in a narrow space of tall, white walls, creating a much quieter setting than the first room.
