SP-Arte Picks: check out what our staff has to share this week

OLAFUR ELIASSON AT THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES

The Palace of Versailles presents a work by Olafur Eliasson for the summer. Composed of nine monumental installations that occupy the gardens and palace rooms, the exhibition pays homage to the relationship between technology and nature, the industrial and the historical.

Commenting on his inspiration, the artist said, “The Versailles that I have been dreaming up is a place that empowers everyone. It invites visitors to take control of the authorship of their experience instead of simply consuming and being dazzled by the grandeur.”

The sketches are available in a virtual tour on the artist’s website. The exhibition runs from June 7 through October 30.

(Cristina, designer)

The Return of the Witch

This article traces the iconography of witches, currently in vogue in the fashion world, but also what it means to be a woman that is considered dangerous because she is spouseless and independent. From Arthur Miller’s classic play, The Crucible to Morticia and Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family – witches represent an alternative to the princess ideal – it’s worth the read!

(Natacha, international liaisons)

TERRA, by MARIA LAET

I first saw Maria Laet’s work in 2013 on a trip to Rio de Janeiro. On an extremely hot day, I saw the vídeo of the work Leito, where small quanitties of milk drip down cracks in the concrete, forming temporary rivers that dry within instants.

In 2015 I was once again moved by her work. In Terra – a PIPA Prize nominee in 2016 –, at Parque Lage, the artist stitches the land forming a path of lines and organic designs between two trees. Once again, the line will decompose and only the record of what happened will remain.

The subtely and ephemeral nature in her work is fascinating.

(Pedro, architect)