Hall Luiz Roque

Overview
Hall, Luiz Roque
A hall is a hall:

An architectural element that works as a division between the centre of a building and its exterior. The immediate space after the entrance, designed to welcome, to provide shelter to strangers and first contact with familiar faces before entering the comfort of home. Here, the display window seduces, the curtains do the editing and the shapes insinuate themselves. The dark blue advances from the walls. A sculpture radiates in the garden. A nipple is aroused. A Brancusi burns in flames. Each moment sharpens an enigma.

A hall is a hall.

Following the trail of the power of image on bodily sensations and social articulations, Luiz Roque experiments with different territories in order to create situations that propose a vigorous body game. As we see in this installation supported by specific dramatic- exhibition apparatus, the artist collects references and combines resources of different natures — from the sci-fi genre and the modernist legacy to pop culture and the bio-politics of the trans body — to sew together ingenious and sensual plots. Articulated with allegories and revealed through a unique plasticity, his stories allow historical readings and speculations, inevitably taking us in the direction of complex issues deep-seated in today’s social imagery.

The sensuality of commercial or museum displays triggers the initial momentum, aimed at moving us kinetically and spiritually in different directions. From his partnership with artist Erika Verzutti leads to a series of photos that take us to contrasting monochromatic sceneries and enigmatic characters. From the desire to talk about Rio de Janeiro’s nature emerges a film based on the accident that set fire to the Museum of Modern Art (MAM- Rio) in 1978, which also approaches the surrounding area of Aterro do Flamengo and the life that inhabitants there.

In the narrative propulsion that takes place in this small room we are conducted through a sort of aesthetic vigour that always operates unusual arrangements. The vibrating image denotes life’s toughness but also the existence of romantic aspirations. Troubled thoughts do not prevent bouts of humour. Literality and figuration do not asphyxiate esoteric and abstractive exercises. We are surrounded by the sphinx, by the extravagant, but also by the pleasant, by the antique.
In this small room we can stretch out and warm up ourselves in the suspense that comes right before choosing any path. As if a certain dance floor atmosphere was apt to ignite a violent political march.

– Germano Dushá
Works
Installation Views
Back to exhibitions