the work of fire

I always work in historical perspective, aware that acting in the present can be a prospection of the future and a reclamation of the past. Moreover, the passage of time is a determining property in my creative processes, the stages of perception and the experience of the works. These combined factors give rise to certain traces of liturgy or choreographic ritual throughout my installations and sculptures; intertwined with layers that reflect on the history of art and society. Such is the case of The Work of Fire (candle, chain, chair and plate, 2018). Commissioned for an exhibition that reflected on the 50 years of AI-5, a decree that stated censorship and legalized torture in Brazil during the military dictatorship  (1968). 

I conceived a giant candle that once ignited, would remain lit throughout the entire exhibition period of 68 days, until finally revealing and completely freeing the iron chain encapsulated within its shaft. Due to current museum safety precautions, the artwork would exist as an absent body within the show; installed elsewhere, but with its image transmitted via CCTV to the exhibition space in real time. The museum’s insurance regulations, however, prohibited the candle being lit anywhere inside the building. These stipulations led to the work being reconfigured as a present body, readied to give account of a past whose shadow nevertheless remains present, awaiting a flame that may never come