24. Oktober – 23. Februar 2020

Angela Lima & Rosângela de Andrade Boss

Territórios Lúdicos / Playful Territories

Coinciding with the 14th Curitiba Biennale, Brasilea presents the two Brazilian artists Angela Lima and Rosângela de Andrade Boss in Basel. The exhibition is a cooperation project with the Biennale, as both artists were exhibited at the previous Biennale in 2017. Their work was selected for its playful character, which they implement in both in their theme selection and in the process of linking different styles.

 

Angela Lima’s art is characterized by her belief that her own experience and subjectivity are indispensable in every project she does.

Prior to the creative process, Angela Lima immerses herself deeply into her innermost being and her experiences, embarks on a journey of introspection, which ultimately brings much to the surface and allows it to be projected onto the screen. As a film lover, she proceeds the same way as in film production. She tells projects as stories and divides them into film sections, which she then literally works through in several scenes. “I don’t have a literal sequence, but I have a visible one.”

She produces rough sketches, which she then transfers to various materials. Angela Lima is constantly searching for characteristics for the individual scenes in which there are often empty areas as well. These empty spaces are present in all her pieces, and at least one side of her work is openly constructed to leave room for interpretation for the viewer and to allow the viewer to immerse themselves at any time.

She describes her way of working as a process that is final as soon as a story consisting of several scenes is completed and coordinated as a whole. This involves permanently questioning and assessing which position is the right one for each individual object, which detail is important or rather unimportant and can therefore be omitted. Empty spaces are cleaned, objects are added, parts are removed completely, and others are replaced by new ones.

During her artist residence in Brasilea’s temporary studio, Angela set out to find the happy, light and playful moments of her childhood. She makes use of formative elements from her professional career in fashion design and mixes them with the visual and formal language of moving photography. People and objects seem to jump out of the grid, voids are filled or deliberately left empty, parts are blended, layered and cropped. The result is a mystical play of structure, filters and depth.

The exhibition shows 22 pieces that relate to those of Rosângela de Andrade Boss.

 

Rosângela de Andrade Boss’s artistic work explores cultural, social and aesthetic boundaries and the permanent changes they are subject to. She is inspired by a wealth of materials she has collected over the years. These are complemented by photographs that Rosângela has taken unnoticed during her walks in nature and the city showing everyday scenes, documented in order to leave them as natural as possible.

The photographs of a city stroll around Curitiba serve as both a basis and inspiration for her latest artwork: workers on their fragile scaffolding structures working on facades at the eye of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba. The painters seem to perform their work recklessly, presenting themselves in an unsecured state of suspension between equilibrium and imbalance, seemingly uncertain themselves as to whether their construction is sufficiently stable. The result is an image of sculptural disorder in search of support and structure, in which the limits of what is feasible are explored. Simultaneously, the depicted scenes are reminiscent of a house of cards that, due to its instability and fragility, can collapse within seconds. Rosângela’s artistic focus is on the interstices and intersections of the structures, which she works out extensively in the style of the previously intensive printing technique of woodcut and linocut, in order to graphically support the confused structures with comic-like connections.

Natural transformation also plays an important role in Rosângelas’ work. Nature seems to grow incessantly and every metamorphosis seems out of control. According to the principle of collage, Rosângela pushes various fragments into a formation, repeating itself indefinitely and appearing chaotic when viewed in isolation. This apparent chaos owes its dark and very dominant effect to the ink drawings, which are penetrated by new graphic forms in crayon, pencil, coloured tape and colours. Surreal hybrid beings are created which merge structure and rampant nature.

Rosângelas artworks, which are characterized by extreme contrasts, are defined by a seemingly playful, seamless connection of all elements and styles used, which blends reality with dreaming beyond recognition, whereby the original is no longer separable from the constructed.

69 works are shown.

 

An illustrated catalogue in German, English and Portuguese accompanies the exhibition.

The Brasilea Foundation is pleased to invite you and your friends

for the opening of the exhibition:

 

THURSDAY, 24 OCTOBER 2019, 18: 45h

 

The artists Angela Lima & Rosângela de Andrade Boss,

the president of the Curitiba Biennial Luiz Ernesto Meyer Pereira

and the Brazilian ambassador to Switzerland Evandro de Sampaio Didonet

will be present.