“BEAM DROP INHOTIM” (2008), BY CHRIS BURDEN, IS ONE OF THE NEW PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS INAUGURATING IN INHOTIM

“Beam Drop Inhotim” (2008) (a title that might be loosely translated into Portuguese as “queda de viga”) is the recreation of a work originally displayed in 1984 at the Art Park, a park of sculptures in the State of New York, and then destroyed three years later. The work was remade last year in Inhotim, in one of the Institute’s areas of expansion. For 12 hours, a 45-meter-high crane dropped the 71 beams that make up the work into a fresh cement pit. The result of this highly impressive operation is a sculpture of great dimensions sitting at the top of a mountain on a farm at the outskirts of the park, an area that will be open for visitation in October.

The random pattern of the sculpture is formed by the fall of the beams, mixing the artist’s control with the violence of chance, caused by the weight of the material. For the production, beams used in junkyards of the region were selected, and then maneuvered by the artist, providing a composition that alludes to abstract expressionism’s gestural aspect, especially the paintings by Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), singled out by the artist as an important influence in his work. The work is also associated with a tradition of monumental sculptures in spite of proposing its own deconstruction.

Chris Burden (Boston, USA, 1946; lives in Topanga, USA), a pioneer of now widespread artistic forms, such as video-art, the performance, and the body art, is a great reference for new generations of artists. The interest for the body, inaugurated in his career with performances such as “Shoot” (1971), when he asked a friend to shoot him in the arm inside a gallery, is still a landmark in his research with the sculpture. For Burden, each beam dropped in “Beam Drop” is like his body falling and crashing against Earth. In his oeuvre, Burden creates extreme situations, at times dangerous, challenging the traditional power relations.

Since the 1970s, Chris Burden exhibits internationally, having taken part of Documenta VI (1977) and the Venice 48th Biennial (1998). The artist has lately been commissioned for large public works, in projects for the Rockefeller Center, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A video of the making of “Beam Drop Inhotim” (2008) may be watched at www.youtube.com. In Inhotim, besides “Beam Drop Inhotim” (2008), the sculpture “Samson” (1985) has been displayed at the Galeria Lago since 2006.