“CONTINENTE/NUVEM” (2008), BY RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER, IS ONE THE NEW PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS IN INHOTIM

“Continente/Nuvem” (Continent/Cloud – 2007) is an installation composed of a polypropylene lining that supports small styrofoam balls, occupying the whole of a ceiling in an old house at Inhotim. The transparency of its surface reveals forms that at times resemble clouds, and at others seem solid bodies like continents. Ventilators hidden above the lining lend the forms constant movement, leading them to rearrange themselves like clouds that change or map frontiers that are continually redrawn.

The house where the work “Continente/Nuvem” (2007) has been assembled dates from 1874 and is the oldest remaining construction of the rural property that originated Inhotim. After a restoration process during this year, the structure of the house was adapted for the installation. Its unassuming architecture echoes the spirit of delicacy present in the artist’s work, embracing the spectator in an experience of contemplation simultaneously intimate and ludic.

The oeuvre of Rivane Neuenschwander (Belo Horizonte, 1967; lives in Belo Horizonte) is marked by the poetic manner in which her themes are presented, bringing formal language closer to regimes associated with organicity, entropy and the participation of the audience, attuning her work to a rich Brazilian tradition, originated by the encounter between geometry and the body since Neoconcretism. At Inhotim, the video “Word/World” (2001), produced with Cao Guimarães, is on display in the exhibition “Lugares” at Galeria Fonte since October 2008.

Since the mid-1990s, Rivane Neuenschwander has exhibited internationally. Throughout this decade, the artist has had solo exhibitions in a series of important institutions, where oft-times she created site-specific works or exhibitions specially devised for such settings. Among these, one may cite South London Gallery (2008), Tokyo Palais (Paris, 2003), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, 2003), Museu de Arte da Pampulha (2002), and Portikus (Frankfurt, 2001). She participated in the Biennials of Venice (2003 and 2005), São Paulo (1998, 2006 and 2008), and Mercosul (2005 and 2007).