Characters who reunite, episodes that evolve
Perception is Wild — the title of Luísa Mota’s installation for the Temporada de Projetos 2014 — combined several parallel events during the inaugural evening’s session, revealing an attitude that seemed to be reminiscent of psychological performances, unlike the previous works in her early artistic career, which may have been viewed solely as aesthetic behaviours. With long body movements, exhibited on the basis of intense physical preparation and the performance of live sculptures, the work presented two 'rolling stone-men' characters, built over time, as if they were subject to video editing slow motion effects. The installation slowly revealed clearly-defined angles of a deformed male silhouette that could almost be touched. The silhouette sometimes looked like a strong, hairy thigh, and on other occasions shapely buttocks wrapped in soft textile. As the spectator viewed the installation, it seemed like a parade of fresh meat before his or her naked eye. Conceived in a minimalist compact version by the artist, the work in this process involves a certain degree of kinship and intimacy with undefined scenes of assemblies by Teatro Oficina. Above all it successfully lends the sensuality of the joy of touch, without the spectators feeling any distance from that which they wanted to experience visually and collectively at that time in Paço das Artes.
Alongside the appearances of symbols, archetypes and ritual representations of the supernatural in Luísa Mota’s works, the suggestion that primarily concerns her is the plot of that which is communicated — the invitation to a convocation. In her 2010 video, that was shot in the Portuguese countryside in the summer light, also entitled Perception is Wild, it was already possible to discern the unquestionable presence of a silver outline, the generating force of invisible men, and the faceless and nameless leader of a private procession, solely achieved through reflective refraction in direct contact with the sunlight. In 2014, she returned to the pseudo character of the invisible man, in response to an invitation from the 3rd Bahia Biennial, in Salvador, Brazil. In the biennial’s inaugural event, held in late May, the artist staged a sectarian sound parade in which half the participants were completely naked and the other half covered in capes, reminiscent of the imaginary universe of sequences in films by Zé do Caixão or direct inspired by the variations of the entity Exu in the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, except that the figures were shining, i.e. silver-coloured.
The artist describes the installation Perception is Wild as a place of geometric structures under study. Adhesive tapes marking the exhibition event demarcate the space next to coloured bits of plastic, printed pieces of fabric and accessories from the popular wholesale store located in Rua 25 de Março — shells, stones, fake gems, jewellery and trinkets, which complement the absurd atmosphere of banalized luxury. The core of the installation frequently resembles an haute couture studio, and on other occasions a pavement stall where a hippie street artisan laboriously works. The room acquires the ambience of a mandala of chaos, in which we see objects and materials suspended in the air or carelessly strewn around the walls, creating a vision of an oracle of the apocalypse. Within this set, the inaugural session of the biennial featured a duo in metamorphosis, in the strict Kafkian sense: a mermaid in a white dress and an alien. As in a problematic and interesting antagonistic relationship with their stereotypes of opposite sexual personas — master&servant — the rehearsal of this relationship before the public, which occurred in front of everyone who was attending the session, created apparent confusion, since it was freely interpreted, and a triangle was equally traced between the artist and her two characters. That which was seen during this improvised observatory of human gestures, inspired various motivations and socioeconomic affections, which occurred within the space between the three characters, as if the interrupted intention could have been to freely adapt the vibration of the connective silence of loving tension between characters in a script such as Persona, the 1966 film by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman or perhaps re-enacting some of the plays for darkness, based on the impact of the senses, selected in 2012 by the German artist and performer Tino Sehgal for dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel.
In Perception is Wild, the objectification of sexual connotation levitates and penetrates the exhibition’s walls like the ghosts of an (ex-) relationship, placed in check, as in a chess game, thereby revealing the disorder of the artefacts and records of daily routine, as if we were watching a scripted plot of an unpredictable existentialist series, divided into micro-chapters. Some hidden recess of Mota's work seems to be recalling a non-existent role of the main character. Is she both the artist and also the director of the screenplay that is being enacted? In terms of prophecies — a subject-matter for her new research — Luísa Mota has been developing icons shrouded in mystery in her latest projects: The Black Woman, The Priestess, Egum and five old ladies who accidentally entered her work. Perception is Wild establishes memories and multiple associations with innumerable key works by various authors from different eras. For example, Marguerite Duras's book Blue Eyes, Black Hair (Les yeux bleus cheveux noirs, Minuit, 1986), in which a man and woman, complete strangers, jointly mourn the loss of a beloved one in the solitude of a hotel room, in a seaside resort somewhere on the north coast of France. Returning to the theme of the exhibition, without any hierarchies in sight, the couple in Perception is Wild use their bodies to interpret sensations and thoughts against the current state of things in art, which affect us all, by defending the spontaneity of reactions to that which is done, placed, painted, glued and sculpted using their own hands. With this work, Luísa Mota teaches us something about the past of images that coexist with abstract realism: stone is, stone isn’t.
Marcio Harum
