Collapse: Group show

Galeria Athena is pleased to present the group show Collapse, curated by Rodrigo Bivar.

Ana Prata, Bruno Dunley, Cabelo, Débora Bolsoni, Leda Catunda, Paulo Whitaker, Rafael Alonso, Rodrigo Andrade.

The name of the exhibition came out after talks with some of the participating artists. Just as this is a collective exhibition, curatorship could also be interpreted this way. When an artist works as a curator, he or she not rarely uses criteria that would bring him or her closer to the exhibiting artists.

The choice for the eight artists present here was based on my interest and my observation of their individual outputs. These works help me reflect on my own works. Artistic production is something collective that emerges from exchanging experiences and observing other works, even though they may frequently have no connection with each other. Not always there is something clear and didactic about choosing an artist.

Even though the title, on the one side, helps understand an occasional connection with the exhibited works, on the other side it points to a construction that comes out of chaos. A poem by William Carlos Williams says:

From disorder (a chaos) order grows
– grows fruitful.
The chaos feeds it.

In an environment where art and poetry exist, one could possibly imagine this poem as something true and positive. However, since the 2016 events – or, to be more explicit, after our tropical Snowden-gate, a coup, period -, the chaos is far from pointing to any way out. Today, the chaos just seems to throw us even more into the hole.

Art is a place of resistance and imagination. Although the works exhibited do not have a clear political reference, they are a rmative, powerful works that show that art is not alienation, it is not an escape. It is imagination, it is construction, it is generosity.

Rodrigo Bivar