Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews Carlito Carvalhosa

by Editorial Team | Oct 17, 2011 in Galleria illy London | Leave A Comment

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There was something very dreamy in the air at the futuristic Galleria illy last night, when the co-director of London’s Serpentine Gallery, Hans Ulrich Obrist, met and interviewed the Brazilian artist Carlito Carvalhosa.

Perhaps it was the ethereal, gauzy white fabrics used in Carvalhosa’s a soma dos dias exhibition, where a suspended voluminous cloth construction alters the museum that houses it, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. Or Philip Glass’ tender music – played as part of the exhibition – and the way the fabric tenderly rose and fell with the air.

The artist (and trained architect) described how people reacted to the music, asking him: “How did you manage to make the fabric move in time to the music?” Of course, this wasn’t the case, but it’s an interesting example of how sound, visuals, space and an audience interact. Carvalhosa said that the exhibition seemed to put people into “a trance-like state”.

Carvalhosa is fascinated by perception, and how an installation can change – even take over – the space that houses it, to the extent that you begin to feel the installation was there first. Hence the name of his 15-tonne Sugar Loaf sculpture: ja estava assim quando chegwei (it was like this when I got here), housed in the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, near the real thing.

For a large segment of the evening, Carvalhosa talked us through his work and showed us images. He’s intrigued by processes, the journey. His work fuses together different elements – past exhibitions have included poetry performances and live music.

Obrist had a copy of Carvalhosa’s new book, Nice to Meet You, in his hands as he spoke to the artist. It was interesting to hear Obrist ask the artist about the significance of white in his work, and the typically multi-layered answer: “Its simplicity. African religions wear white on Fridays. In Brazil, it’s worn for the heat. Things change themselves better if they’re white. There’s a plasticity, a spiritual purity.”