1998_dgf_brasilia-hall

Artist:
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (born 1965 in Strasbourg, France; lives and works in Paris, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Materials:
Neon sign, carpet, video; color, silent.

Description:
A reference to Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia Hall was first shown in Gonzalez-Foerster’s ARC show in Paris in 1999. The work is interested in how experimental forms of modernism took place in non-Western locations, and how they seem to flourish when a backdrop of tropical nature allows the architecture to acquire a different character.

“White walls, a green carpet, the title of the piece in orange neon, and a video screen create an abstract playing board for the viewer. Brasilia Hall is a large artwork comprising few components. The film shows images of the architect Oscar Niemeyer’s buildings in Brasília, the capital of Brazil, which was founded in 1956 in a desert landscape and which is dominated by modernist buildings. Everything was built in a new style with the purpose of avoiding historical baggage. Brasilia Hall reflects and comments on the monumental expression of international modernism. The pure, white surfaces are tinged by the colours and light of the tropical climate.
—”Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster,” Moderna Museet.

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