Xippas Punta del Este is pleased to present a personal exhibition Quase Nada (Almost Nothing) by Cao Guimarães, a major Brazilian artist also residing in Uruguay. This extensive exhibition showcases for the first time his most recent photographic work Maré, as well as his iconic series Gambiarras in a major version Mosaico, an 8-meter-long piece featuring over 40 photographs shown for the first time in Uruguay.
“In these moments, amid these things,
That precede or follow great events,
In the scent of rain brought by that wind already
In that droplet that, after the storm, still balances on the surface of a leaf
In the church tower immersed in the clouds that protrudes from the great city
In the eternal sound of her footsteps while I wait for her in bed full of desire
In the poorly slept night of Albert (if he had one) before discovering the theory of relativity
In the landscapes of sand drawn by the humor of the moon and tide
In the moths that attacked Cioran’s “The Breviary of Decay” among many other available books.
In that last thought that I kept in a soap bubble before it burst.
In all these things, almost-things,
I live, almost alive,
Almost nothing.”
The new series Maré, which inspires this exhibition, resonates with other series in Guimarães’ work that converge into a common poetics, gathered in the intimate, subtle encounter of resonances that are observed and dwell on almost invisible gestures. Húmedo, Plano de Vuelo, Paisagens Reais, all these series have to do with the trace, the passage or the moment of climatic or natural phenomena, choreographic traces of a movement of water, birds, or the soul in a quasi-phenomenological sense. Collective journeys that move forward while looking back.
A separate gallery space is dedicated to the Mosaico series and portraits of Espantapájaros, both inspired by popular culture, typical for the region.
“My concept of ‘gambiarra’ is something that is constantly expanding and changing. It ceases to be simply an object or device perceptible in reality and expands into other forms and manifestations such as gestures, actions, customs, thoughts, culminating in the very idea of existence. Existence as a great ‘gambiarra’, where there is no room for brochures, instruction manuals, maps or guides… The ‘gambiarra’ is almost always an ‘original’ and not a copy or reproduction. And so it is a living entity, constantly changing. Registering it means making it reproducible, multiplying it by modifying its fundamental function” (Cao Guimarães, 2009).
The exhibition is extended by screening of the artist’s cinematic work at the neighboring Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Atchugarry (MACA), featuring three films during March:
Amizade, 2023 | 85 min | Digital HD – Sunday, March 10, 2024.
EX-IT, 2010 | 86 min | Digital HD – Friday, March 22, 2024
The Soul of the Bone, 2004 | 74 min | Digital HD – Sunday, March 31, 2024.
