INHOTIM, ONCE AGAIN IN LARGE SCALE
The Institute inaugurates nine works by nationally and internationally acclaimed contemporary artists

Large-scale works of art that could only be built in a place like Inhotim, located 60 km away from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, will be inaugurated in late September and early October. The new works are by the artists Chris Burden, Doug Aitken, Edgard de Souza, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Jorge Macchi, Matthew Barney, Rivane Neuenschwander, Valeska Soares, and Yayoi Kusama. The opening event has been named “Nine New Destinations” and, according to Jochen Volz, Instituto Inhotim’s Artistic-Director and one of the curators, “the idea of destination is the place’s very essence. After all, Instituto Inhotim is not a place one passes by. Inhotim is always a destination.”

Many projects are site-specific, that is, the artists designed the works making use of the possibilities offered by the place chosen. The work starts to be conceived in an interaction among the artist, the setting, the institution, and the possibility of achieving, many times, a dream, as in the Argentine Jorge Macchi’s “Piscina,” in which a two-dimensional watercolor has become, at Inhotim, a three-dimensional swimming pool with steps that refer to a phone catalogue.

With the new works, Inhotim broadens the concept of what an exhibition space is. There will be works assembled at the top of a mountain, inside dense woods, amidst eucalyptus trees, and behind a large lake. This is an innovative curatorial proposal and the result of years of teamwork between a great staff and the artists.
For the Institute’s Executive-Director, Ana Lúcia Gazzola, the openings reinforce Inhotim’s uniqueness as a contemporary art space unlike practically any other museum in the world. She adds, “The expansion of the collection widens the frontiers of Inhotim itself, as they purposely leave the areas cared with landscaping into rougher spaces. The artist can, at Inhotim, create his artistic utopia.”

“We walk the land with the artist, always searching for the right place,” says Jochen Volz. This moving together makes viable what many times would be unimaginable in a general sense. After all, in what museum of the world would the American Doug Aitken find a mountain to accomplish his “Sonic Pavilion”(2009)? Amidst the woods of Inhotim, a trail leads the visitor to a monumental building, and therein a 200-meter deep hole allows the sound of Earth to be heard.

In addition to the geographic uniqueness, the artists also deal with the concept of undefined temporality. Some projects take years to be finished, as in the case of the American Matthew Barney’s “De Lama Lamina”(2004–2009), begun in 2004. At Inhotim, the artist has no tight schedule. Matthew Barney had a clear image of his project since the beginning. The result of five years’ work is moving.  

The work whose installation demanded the least time was “The Murder of Crows” (2008), by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller. Inspired by Goya’s etching “The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters,” this work was presented last year at the Sydney Biennial (Australia) and seen there by the institution’s curator. Whereas in Sydney it was exhibited in a big maritime warehouse, at Inhotim a warehouse with the exact dimensions for assembly has been built.

Would it be possible to see anything in common between the nine new works? Jochen Volz identifies the relation each work establishes with the institution and vice-versa as a common thread. “We are opening the nine works together, but each one of them has its own identity. Each one speaks of itself,” assures Volz.