The exhibition for the opening of Millan Antonio brings the youngest one in the group of Brazilian artists lead by Helio Oiticica in the beginning of the concrete movement in the 70’s: TUNGA, Antônio José de Barros de Carvalho e Mello Mourão one of the best well-known artists in the world. Just to remind you, Tunga has a degree in architecture and started his career in visual arts in 1973.
It has been 10 years since his last individual exhibition in São Paulo, except the one in Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in May 2001. However, his works have been shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice and New York; Istanbul and Gwangju, Korea, Biennials; at the X Documenta in Kassel; at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris; at the Contemporary Art Museum in Miami; at the Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, just to name some of the most important cultural institutions in the world.
The opening exhibit shows TUNGA’s most recent works, which will be exhibited in both floors at Millan Antonio’s. “The development of these two new works to be exhibited was possible only because of the similarity in the proposals set forth by the artist and the gallery,” says Tunga in the following brief statement.
The main room at the ground level (100m2) the Elective Affinities project will be shown, a work inspired by Goethe’s novel discussing the sexuality theory. Sculptures in galvanized iron, steel and aluminum like irregular circles, giant teeth, iron shafts, silks and felt. “The production process of these sculptures are identified with the calcification process in the human body,” says the artist while talking about the pieces in this work. The presence of human-like teeth supports an allegoric dialogue and manipulates an unstable space between seduction and danger – two opposing aspects of pleasure.
Elective Affinities enable the sculptures to occupy their own space, regardless of where they are. They adapt themselves to the site where they are placed and are different at every moment, going against the site specific trend. Laminosae Animae is the title of the project presented by Tunga at the gallery’s first floor. It contains an investigation laboratory where the artists presents a sculpture, performing with other three characters an idea conceived and put into practice. This will offer the audience an investigating, instigating interaction, a continuation of the physical movement of the work. Curiosity arouse during the performance certainly will raise questions regarding the reasons of the seduction play, when certain mysteries remain unveiled, but are translated by the Performance.
This work uses several materials, as glass laminates, wooden arcades, tables, microscopes, canes and huge pins crossing the arcades and held on the walls. This Performance area will also show two vivariums with live animals. “These are investigators observing insects and amphibious, in a dimension and metamorphosis operation,” says the artist.