Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel

Sara Ramo & Cinthia Marcelle

03 Jul - 21 Aug 2010

Exhibition view
SARA RAMO & CINTHIA MARCELLE
"Grand Illusion"

03.07.2010 | 21.08.2010

Galpão Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present the third collaboration between the artists Sara Ramo and Cinthia Marcelle. A Grande Ilusão is an installation that deals with the object and representation, and man’s need to create limits and borders with the aim of organizing and protecting himself.

The installation is based on the comedy of errors The Grand Illusion (1937) by French film director Jean Renoir. This film, set in World War I, concerns the relation between the individual who imprisons and the person imprisoned. The plot takes place entirely within a German prison in such a way that the war appears as an external character and as a starting point for human questionings.

The visitors enter a completely closed and darkened room. Gradually, as they get used to the darkness, they encounter a movie-screen frame from which the actual screen itself has been removed. Through the screen they see a cement wall with a gap, through which a path of earth runs. The spectators then hear fragments of dialogs from the film, while they read the following dialog in the subtitles at the bottom of screen:

Marechal: Are you sure that’s already Switzerland, right over there?
Rosenthal: Totally.
Marechal: It’s just that the German snow and the Swiss snow look the same.
Rosenthal: Don’t worry, there is a handmade marker right over there, even though nature doesn’t care much about it.
Marechal: It doesn’t matter to me either. And when the war is over, I’m coming back to find Elsa.

Questions of representation and staging are constant in the works by Sara Ramo and Cinthia Marcelle. This tiny fragment of dialog, extracted from its original context, refers not only to the great rupture created by World War I, but to the idea of borders, physical or psychological obstacles, and how they are overcome.

The two artists have previously participated in important national and international exhibitions, and will participate, separately, in the 29th Bienal de São Paulo. Sara Ramo participated in the Venice Biennale, 2009; the Panorama da Arte Brasileira, 2003; and the 6° Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, RS, 2007. Cinthia Marcelle’s solo shows have most notably included those at Camberwell College of Arts, England (2009), Sprovieri Projetti, England (2009), Box4, Brazil (2007); Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Brazil (2006); and Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Brazil (2004).
 

Tags: Cinthia Marcelle, Sara Ramo