Travel Tip: Art and Archaeology in Brazil
Cao Guimarães: Passatempo

Galeria Nara Roesler presents Cao Guimarães’ show Passatempo. Water – a symbol of rebirth and an element which contains and feeds the embryo – was the focal point for Solange Farkas’ curating.

Passatempo is a short inventory of the obsessions that get converted to poetry in Cao Guimarães work. The show follows the path of his work as he explores the relationship between man, object, and landscape. In the photo series Gambiarras, human presence is only assumed. In Paquerinhas, it is projected onto the ironic relationship between kites and fishing rods. In Limbo, it vanishes from the world altogether, leaving empty swings.

And then we get to Otto, his most recent piece and the highlight of the show. Cao named the piece after his son, and describes it as a romance film. For 70 minutes, a person, a hitherto absent symbol, is on the spotlight. The storyline is centered around the figure of a woman. Her face, her body, her voice, her laughter, her belly as it grows and turns to a bubble about to burst into a scion.

The curator Solange Farkas writes that the offspring gets born, the offspring sprouts. She claims that to Cao Guimarães, cinema is an art still in its cradle. This is the artists fourth solo show at Galeria Nara Roesler.

About Cao Guimarães

Minas Gerais state native Cao Guimarães is a leading name in the crossover between cinema and the fine arts in Brazil. Prolific since the late 1990s, he may show his works in predominantly cinema-oriented festivals “ Locarno, in Switzerland, Sundance, in the USA, and Cannes, in France, among others “, or in art shows such as the Biennial of São Paulo, in which he featured in 2002 and 2006.

The author of documentaries such as Andarilho, A alma do osso, and Acidente (in partnership with Pablo Lobato), Guimarães has many of his pieces in renowned collections, such those of Londonâ Tate Modern, New York´ss MoMA and Guggenheim Museum, and Madrid Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

His works may be regarded as expanded audiovisual pieces, and have influenced several other artists from Minas Gerais, such as Marcellvs L.. His photographic work is also outstanding. The famous Gambiarras series provided the basis for a section of the Panorama of Brazilian Art, in 2007, curated by Moacir dos Anjos at the MAM-SP.