Mausoléu
Views of the site-specific installation. © Carlos Bunga.
Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo
Excerpt of Ivo Mesquita’s text: Inside the Pinacoteca, Mausoleum is a large cardboard tower, built at the centre of the museum, housing a group of sculptures from its collection chosen by the artist. The tower imitates the architecture of the museum’s interior, but at the same time obstructs it: by transforming the way it is perceived we are reminded of its purpose. The access points chinks and windows open out in the upper part, the colour of cardboard blends with the orange tones of brick, the layer of paint observable on the outside structure, all of these associations set in motion an interplay of assorted meanings related to the artist and to the history of the organizing institution.
On the one hand, the unfinished look of the structure, exposing the insides of the walls, which brings to mind a never-concluded architecture, part and parcel of the history of the Pinacoteca’s building, is a way of stressing the idea of the museum as something under constant construction. On the other hand, in the centre of the room, the sculptures (the museum’s collection, the body preserved inside the mausoleum) are there to act as regents of time and space, immune to all curatorial messages or arrangements, possessing the full force of their materiality and specificity, ready for direct encounters with the visitor. In this fashion, Carlos Bunga has built a monument to celebrate the life and eternal time that dwell inside the museum.
Views of the site-specific installation. © Carlos Bunga.
Curator: Ivo Mesquita
2012. São Paulo, Brazil.
