Opening this week the 22nd SESC_VIDEOBRASIL Biennial, which takes place at Sesc 24 de Maio, in São Paulo, between October 18, 2023 and February 25, 2024.
The artist Zé Carlos Garcia takes part with the commissioned work “Bode” (highlighted above).
Entitled “Memory is an editing station“— a phrase taken from a poem by Waly Salomão (1943–2003) — this event’s edition has the artistic direction of Solange Oliveira Farkas and is curated by Raphael Fonseca (Brazil) and Renée Akitelek Mboya (Kenya). It also celebrates the 40th anniversary of Videobrasil, initially devoted to video, and then expanded over the decades to encompass a broad range of artistic languages.
The curatorial selection presents different visions and ways of approaching memory — and forgetting — whether individual or collective, linked to varied social, political and cultural contexts. The Global South that emerges in this edition, with artists from 38 countries in Africa, the Americas (South, Central and North), Asia, Europe (Eastern and Portugal), the Middle East and Oceania — including representatives of Indigenous peoples — also reflects the global post-pandemic context.
“Bode” bears the signature of the Sergipe born and Rio de Janeiro based artist Zé Carlos Garcia, who works in the field of sculpture with a research based on the choice of wood from urban pruning, fragments of old furniture and forestry management. When composing his bestiary of hybrid bodies, Garcia reveals his allegorical and fabulous poetics, filled with cultural references and possible narratives. In this work, in particular, conceived especially for the 22hd Biennial, we notice the appearance of a goat, an animal popularly associated with the symbolism of expiatory sacrifice. Carved from a fallen eucalyptus tree found on the artist’s ranch, this nameless goat, with no color or finish, has horns, legs and an adornment emerging from its interior, leading to mix feelings of fascination and disturbance.
More information about the event and the participating artists: bienalsescvideobrasil.org.br
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Work info
ZÉ CARLOS GARCIA
Bode, 2023
Eucalyptus carving
143 x 173 x 225 cm
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Pictures gallery
by Rafael Adorjan
