SCENE—SYNTAX

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Solo show at GDA, 2022
Text by Fernanda Brenner

Solo show about the incorporation of text and language as a methodology, ‘editing’ the works on space and ‘writing’ a scene for the body of those who visit the exhibition. The worl takes form as text, installation, video, fiction and collage, and all comes together in a scenic composition. In the exhibition one work complements the other, they are elements and units that, eve in dismembered and re-membered, signify as whole.

Photos by Julia Thompson

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Notes on the exhibition
by Maíra Dietrich

The exhibition considers the incorporation of text and language not only as subject matter but also as methodology, ‘editing’ the works in space and ‘writing’ a scene for the body of the visitor. In a certain sense, both language and the body can be dismembered into their units: the body has eyes, hands, mouth, legs…; language has syllables, phrases, gestures, breaths…; and both, even dismembered, can only exist, signify, and communicate as a whole. In this sense, I act to dismember and re-member these totalities with mixed units of body and language. The work takes shape as text, installation, video, fiction, and collage, and everything comes together in a scenographic composition. In the exhibition, one work complements the other; they are elements and units that, even dismembered and re-membered, signify as a whole.

WINGROOM SCENE
Initially, the exhibition was only intended to take place from the beige curtains forward, but during the setup period I began to understand this back space, this still unfinished leftover area, and I felt the need to create a second space. From the curtain forward we have the SCENE, what is being designed and projected for you to see and experience; at the end we have the WINGROOM, the place where the SCENE is being projected, architected for you to experience, a kind of machine room, the operations center of the ‘puppet master’. In this counter-scene we have the film script (of which several parts comprise works that are in the SCENE) mounted on a teleprompter in composition with an infinite chromakey background, drawings and notes that speak of the exhibition. I really like the fact that this space is at the back of the exhibition, since after you see it, you have to go through the entire exhibition again to leave, as if this second look comes more lucid and conscious after seeing the WINGROOM.

SYNTAX
The concept of text and language has always been present in my work. Initially as form, then as subject matter, and now I feel it occupies a methodological place, in the sense that the works are assembled as if editing a text. This is the place of SYNTAX, briefly setting aside semantics (which studies the meaning of each word in itself) and looking at the words (units) in relation to the sentence structure (the whole). That is, we are looking at the responsibility, protagonism, and idiosyncrasy of each work in relation to the whole, which work receives, which work confuses, which introduces, questions, welcomes, etc. I also really like the term Exegesis, but it comes with a biblical connotation that makes it somewhat off-limits for now.

RHYTHM
In the course of thinking about the relationship between body and language, the work has become less and less verbal, less 'at length', less and less interested in legibility. The focus has shifted, and what the work is most interested in at the moment are the things that make up language and body but are non-textual: gestures, sounds, physical mannerisms, etc. One of the things that has interested me and appeared in the works is a rhythmic notion. In the exhibition there are three works that deal with rhythm more directly:

- Floor piece with white metal and tarpaulins: Voice cadence, phonetic modulation of a phrase, going up and down, decelerations and tonics.

- Photos with books and oranges: A work that disrupts existing units (books) creating new units (leaves between oranges), creating a rhythm with these new units.

- Acrylic discs: A work that creates a rhythm to show the passage from the STAGE to the WINGS; you follow the wall and it makes a 'little tune' for you to go from one place to another. Rhythm made of units.

FICTION
A desire to increase the strangeness of the space; curtains help with this, since once you pass through them, the rules are no longer the same. Use of synthetic materials, canvas, acrylic, metal... research into materials also involves using existing materials but with a slight alteration in cut, function, or color. The work's own language, a lexicon of solutions.

INDIRECTION
Both images and texts appear in the work indirectly; there is not much interest in fidelity. In the plots, two images overlap; in the video, the text occurs through a reflection, a triangulation between letter, reflection, and camera. The use of still life as a photographic resource.

ARCHIVE
The work is also an archive of the work itself (this, among many things, I learned from the artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx, being her assistant for two years); one work references another, whether with titles or forms. The works in this exhibition often cite works that are not in the exhibition, creating footnotes for what is not visible. In this exhibition there are also two footnotes referring to the two previous solo exhibitions I did. In the work at the entrance, the blue ironwork mentions the exhibition "Writing about Reading" at the Auroras Library in 2022, and the stack of papers mentions the exhibition "Peripheral Vision" at the Paço das Artes in 2018.

ASSEMBLY
In my work the installation process is as vibrant and experimental as the studio work itself. For this exhibition, I worked with a maquette for a few months. I tested some scenarios, but at some point I understood that the maquette was hindering more than helping; I understood that I could speculate freely, but that the decisions would be made in the same space. I had a few tricks up my sleeve, but I decided to go into the space with the position of only one work defined (the floating green curtain). After it was installed, it defined the installation of the next work, which together defined the next, and so on. I've always liked to think of installation as a choreography for the body, but I think in this particular exhibition it's a choreography for the eye and neck. The orthogonal space gave me a great desire to create an installation with many diagonal lines (Fernanda Brenner calls it 'making a pinball with the gaze,' one work reflects on another, and so on). The gaze rises, falls, circles, rises again, goes to the side, etc. This is also about rhythm.

INFINITE BACKGROUND
When I visited the space, the gray of the walls initially startled me, but then it grew on me. There's something very powerful about the walls and floor being the same color; somehow it contributes to what we're talking about in terms of fiction, which somehow creates a sense of vertigo, like an infinite background. As if the wall and floor were the same thing, the same material, and therefore have the same hierarchical scale. As if the space were made of the same material that is folded. Wall works can be a drawing of the space's floor plan (small discs), floor pieces can simply be wall pieces placed in a different way. This gray also gave me a great lesson in color and composition.

SCENOGRAPHY
The first person to connect this word with my work was Galciane Neves, during her visit to the solo exhibition ‘Visão Periférica’ at Paço das Artes in 2018. Since then, I've been very interested in creating a scenographic idiosyncrasy to the point where you understand that the work is not what you are seeing, but you, within that space, looking at that work. As if there were a third presence, a camera or a narrator (remember the script playing back then).

INVASION
Between Christmas and New Year's, the exhibition was invaded; the space was locked and people entered without invitation or authorization. We don't know how many people invaded or how long they stayed. The space was very messed up, trash everywhere, equipment was stolen, and materials were broken. We don't know the reason, but the works were not damaged. This contrasts sharply with the neglect and mess of the rest of the space. We don't know how or why, but whoever invaded the space didn't break, steal, or damage the works in the exhibition. We'll never know if it was out of laziness, respect, admiration, or any other reason. Some works were moved and disturbed, but nothing serious compared to the rest of the space. We are aware of the social situation in Brazil, and yet this doesn't diminish the feeling of invasion, of violation, of an uninvited energy entering a space where so much energy, desire, care, and vibration were invested. This unpleasant feeling is paradoxical, somehow twisted: Thank you for not destroying my exhibition.

MAÍRA DIETRICH

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