SUSPICIOUS MINDS
Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paolo
SUSPICIOUS MINDS
Curator: Cristina Ricupero
August 28th to September 21st, 2013
Artists : Kader Attia, Sven Augustijnen, Dora Longo Bahia, Jean-Luc Blanc, Zé do Caixao, Asli Cavusoglu, Marcelo Cidade, Brice Dellsperger, Dias & Riedweg, Guga Ferraz, Sandra Gamarra, Eva Grubinger, Gustavo von Há, Gabriel Lester, Antonio Manuel, Fabian Marti, Cildo Meirelles, Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima, Rosângela Rennó, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Aida Ruilova, Carla Zaccagnini.
Just as in a good detective story, art history is actually filled with enigmas, myths and unsolved riddles that seem to be only waiting to be investigated and unravelled. There are paintings that look like the perfect hideout for well-hidden secrets. Trying to solve these intellectual puzzles is a pleasure for all ages and seasons and practically no one is immune to this cultural temptation. Seen from that approach, the art gallery almost becomes the “scene of the crime”.
The dark side of human nature has always fascinated and inspired artists but it was not until the 19th century that this aspect took a more radical stance. The development of photography was actually crucial, as Walter Benjamin has noted, for the appearance of criminology and its sensational representation in the tabloid press, ultimately leading to the popularisation of detective stories. The detective story, according to Benjamin, could only come to exist when human beings developed the ability to leave permanent traces behind them as an unmistakable evidence of their existence. Later cinema picked up on this and became the perfect medium to capture and transform the dubious charms of violence into pleasurable images.
The exhibition “Suspicious Minds” will mainly focus on contemporary artists that cross the bridges linking art and the aesthetics of crime. Beyond crime, there is always the everlasting question of Evil, and therefore any project that deals with art and crime will ultimately force us to examine the relationship between ethics and aesthetics. Like the artist who constantly resists the temptation not to leave traces, the serial killer will “sign” his murders with his own personal mark to ensure recognition. This project is thus the perfect occasion to discuss questions of authorship, authenticity, trickery and fraud. “Suspicious Minds” aims to bring together detective fiction and contemporary art, going beyond the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste, highlighting the double bind of ‘Crime as Art’ and ‘Art as Crime’. ‘Suspicious Minds’ will therefore necessarily re-open the debate on the links between the avant-garde, modernism and popular culture.
This exhibition curated by Cristina Ricupero will invoke the spirits of the modern crime genre in Literature, the Visual Arts, Architecture and Cinema, to transform Galeria Vermelho’s rooms into multiple “crime scenes”.
‘Suspicious Minds’ includes new works and projects by around 20 Brazilian and international artists and artist groups, bringing together challenging works in a multitude of artistic strategies.
The exhibition’s aim is not to serve as a mere illustration or commentary to the theme. Instead, participating artists will deal in different ways with the overall theme. Some works will directly address the subject matter whereas others will function in a more mental, historic or conceptual way through sub-themes such as: artworks as hideouts for hidden secrets; the modern crime genre and detective stories; the aesthetics of crime (exquisite corpses and the cinematic); the image of the artist as marginal; law, order and transgression; authorship, authenticity, trickery and frauds; the art gallery as the scene of the crime/art crimes; how society creates evil, us (West) against them (other non-Western countries).
With his monumental installation ‘Strictu’, Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles confronts the viewer with a space that evokes an interrogation chamber where a barely lit small table is surrounded by a very long chain containing steel balls and handcuffs. Here mind and body control are at centre stage. Austrian artist Eva Grubinger puts up a flag and a brass plaque on the facade of the gallery turning it into 'the ‘Embassy of Eitopomar', an utopian kingdom in the Amazon jungle ruled by the evil master villain Dr. Mabuse. Dutch artist Gabriel Lester recreates a fully decorated and conceivable living room in one of the gallery spaces; although it does not necessarily aim to depict a ‘crime scene’, it definitely evokes it by its phantasmagoric, eerie quality. Brazilian artist Dora Longo Bahia takes us close to contemporary wars as she revisits Delacroix’s ‘La Liberté guidant le peuple’ by re-painting the masterpiece on recycled army tent; she juxtaposes it with another painting featuring realistic images from MST (Movimento dos Agricultores Sem Terra) and vandalizes both with red color acrylic paint during the opening of the show. French-Algerian artist Kader Attia presents a slide show including images from his own private collection of newspapers and comic strips that repeatedly seem to depict the non-Western person as a beast or monster, showing how these images were manipulated by pro-colonial propaganda pretending to have a civilizing mission. Brazilian artist Gustavo von Ha brings us back the spirit of re-known Modernist Brazilian artist Tarsila de Amaral with a series of appropriations he sets up in a Beaux-Arts décor. These are just a few of the many stories that visitors to the show will be offered as puzzles to be unraveled.
‘Suspicious Minds’ aims to bring together a few selected artists from Europe and the US together with Brazilian artists from the gallery and elsewhere. It is mainly set up as a collaboration and cooperation between Galeria Vermelho and curator Cristina Ricupero
A brochure was published by Galeria Vermelho for the occasion.