“FOLLY” (2005-2009), BY VALESKA SOARES, IS ONE OF THE NEW PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS INAUGURATING IN INHOTIM

For the distant end of a large new lake in the gardens of Inhotim, Valeska Soares has created a small-scale architectural structure, reminiscent of a classical garden folly. When approaching Folly (2005-2009) on the sinuous path along the water, one perceives that what appeared from distance to be a roof on poles, shading an open space, is actually a solid octagonal form with its sides covered by large mirrors, reflecting the surrounding. The artist, in reaction to the place and taking advantage of the dramatic qualities of landscaping, has designed this gradual approach. Surrounding the pavilion, a door opens to the inside projection room, also covered with mirrors on all walls. Entering, one immediately finds oneself in the midst of an endlessly reflected projection.

Folly (2005-2009) is an adaption of a work originally produced and exhibited in Belo Horizonte in 2002. Soares was at that time commissioned by the Museu de Arte da Pampulha to make this video as part of her solo-exhibition in the former Pampulha casino designed by Oscar Niemeyer in the early 1940s. The video shows dancers gliding on the dance floor of this mid-century architectural masterpiece, and through superposition of various images, magically meeting and separating. Titled Tonight (2002), the video was first installed in the very dance hall where the sequences had been filmed. The soundtrack is a remixed version of Burt Bacharach’s song The Look of Love (1967), altered by Belo Horizonte sound artists O Grivo. A first version of Folly has been shown at the 51st Venice Biennial in 2005.

Valeska Soares is one of the internationally most active artists of her generation. She works in drawing, installation, sculpture, sound and video, having developed her very own personal poetry around a series of very emblematic materials and forms recurring throughout her trajectory, such as marble, beeswax, stainless steel and mirror, the bed, the bucket, the book and the garden folly. Independently of the support, a core theme in Soares’ art is the presence or the absence of the body, the memory and the imagination, love and dance.

Valeska Soares (Belo Horizonte, 1957; lives in New York, United States) has exhibited in the most important international exhibitions, such as the São Paulo Biennial, in 1994, 1998 and 2008, and the Liverpool Biennial, in 2004. Her largest solo-exhibition to date was held in 2005 at the Bronx Museum of Arts, New York.