UMBERTO COSTA’S SITE-SPECIFIC’S COMEBACK AT MARLI MATSUMOTO
Umberto Costa Barros’ exhibition WHERE was presented at Marli Matsumoto Contemporary Art. The work was specifically conceived for the gallery space.
Since his first works in 1969, the work of Umberto Costa Barros has dialogued with two fields: art and architecture, exploring the relationship between his work and the location.
The work of deconstruction and reconstruction changes the relationship with space itself, which opens up to a new phenomenological experience. There is no longer an exhibition space, but a space of the work. A room is conceived as a drawing in the third dimension that takes over the space and its acts.
Room 2 of the gallery shows images taken by the artist himself of the interventions done in 1969/1970, allowing the viewer to observe not only within the history of Brazilian art, but also within an international context.
Entering into the work’s physical quality through the experience of the place’s singularity is an artistic movement that appeared in the late 1960s called Site Specific. Together with his Graphic Work, initially presented in 1975 at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, the artist’s work brings these issues up to date.
Umberto Costa Barros (Rio de Janeiro, 1948) began working in 1969 and won first prize at the III Salão de Artes Plásticas held at the Universidade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da UFRJ (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro). Using the existing resources on site: furniture and university equipment, he "unbalances" these objects with pieces of chalk. His fragile "imbalance" changes our perception of space. For his intervention at the Museu de Arte Moderna the following year at the II Salão de Verão in 1970, he also uses the museum's shutters and panels. An installation in the work of Umberto Costa Barros is a process in-situ with a minimal economy of the means used to deconstruct space. It is impossible to redo it elsewhere. For this exhibition he presented a brand-new project.
WHERE. Individual exhibition by Umberto Costa Barros.
Until November 11th, 2023.
Marli Matsumoto Contemporary Art. R. João Alberto Moreira, 128 – Sumarezinho, São Paulo, Brazil.