The public exhibition at Lange Voorhout of Brasil, Beleza?! has come to an end; alas, as it wasn’t bad at all. However, the main exhibition at Museum Beelden aan Zee (BaZ) with sculpture from Brazil is still on show.
This year BaZ has made a clear difference between more monumental and robust works at Lange Voorhout and the smaller works in its own venue. There is also a big difference with last year’s Flemish show: there are fewer works by fewer artists.
That gives the works the opportunity to breathe more and it doesn’t give the visitor the idea that he/she is walking in a crowded supermarket. The choice (some great and some lesser known names) is also very good.
Brazil’s recent past in modernist architecture and its daily life in that would-be optimistic environment play an important role in the exhibition. As a material concrete returns a few times in the show but not really in its most sturdy modernist way.
The materials are generally very divers and are very much part of the content and expression of the works, whether they are self styled or made of found objects.
Personal favourite discoveries are Erika Verzutti, who presents small sculptures slightly familiar and slightly awkward, and
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, whose virtual reality work wasn’t available when i visited, due to circumstances, but whose table full of delicate things, both objects and ideas, will make you want more.
I advise you to visit the show yourself, as it is, for its content and its presentation, one of the best in BaZ’s series of summer exhibitions.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
Bertus Pieters