Exhibition "TUNGA: Magnetic Conjunctions

Tunga's work is presented by Itaú Cultural in a monumental show that closes this year's exhibitions

As a child, the Pernambucan born Antônio José de Barros Carvalho e Mello Mourão (1952-2016), born in Palmares, Pernambuco, was given the nickname Tunga, which means "toe bug". This is how he became known in the national and international artistic milieu. Five years after his death from cancer in Rio de Janeiro, where he had taken up residence since the 1970s, Itaú Cultural is holding an exhibition covering his entire oeuvre. It opens to the public at 11am on 11 December and runs until 10 April.

TUNGA: Magnetic Conjunctions is composed of about 300 two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, including works produced from the beginning of his career, when he was 18, to his latest creations in 2015, and items from his studio. They are drawings - which permeate his work throughout his career -, sculptures, objects, installations, videos, performances, artist's notebooks, sketches and materials he used.

This exhibition extends to Instituto Tomie Ohtake, located in the Pinheiros neighbourhood, where the public can appreciate Magnetic Gravitation. Made up of approximately 300 kilometres of metal wires - if they were extended in a single line - the work participated in the 19th São Paulo Biennial in 1987 and has never been reassembled. In addition to the drawings that accompany the work and a maquette, ÃO will also be exhibited there, which can currently only be visited at the Inhotim Institute.

The making and conception of TUNGA: Conjunções Magnéticas is a partnership between the Tunga Institute and Itaú Cultural, through the Visual Arts Center, which extends to the making of a Raisonné Catalogue, sponsored by Banco Itaú - a three-year project to bring together over 10,000 works by the artist catalogued in this publication. The tactile objects, which join the accessibility resources offered in the exhibition, also come from a joint work of the two institutes. Itaú Cultural is also preparing a catalogue of the exhibition, to be distributed in early 2022 and a program designed by the Education and Relationship Center.

Paulo Venancio Filho, curator, critic and art professor, besides being Tunga's friend since he moved to Rio de Janeiro, is the curator. The exhibition design is by Isa Gebara. Antônio Mourão, his son and director of the institution; Clara Gerchman, co-founder and manager of the collection; and Fernando Sant'Anna, the artist's assistant for most of his career, collaborated on behalf of the Tunga Institute.

"This is an exhibition that has an almost complete coverage of Tunga's work. I say 'almost' because, in the last decades, he made works that he called 'instaurations', they were ephemeral and demanded his presence and it was no longer possible to reproduce them. But, it is undoubtedly the largest and most complete," says the curator. "It's a unique opportunity to see all his work at once. It will probably take a long time to bring together again so many works from institutions and collections", he adds.

The presentation of the whole of the artist's production reveals the diversity of supports used by him. It also shows his multiple interests in different areas of knowledge, such as literature, mathematics, art and philosophy. This is not, however, a retrospective exhibition in the sense of linearity and chronology. Venancio Filho chose to present works from different periods in the same spaces, seeking to relate them to each other, in what he calls a kind of "folding" that Tunga did in his work, sometimes turning back to himself.

Among rarities, unreleased and highlights

One of the factors that contributes to making this exhibition a rare opportunity to get to know in loco the plurality of Tunga's work is the fact that more than 30 works from private collections and at least six from public collections are present. In addition to Magnetic Gravitation, unseen since 1987, there are new works such as drawings from the series of this work itself and the Polychromatic Phanographs of Deposition.

One of the highlights is the exhibition copy of the work Piscina (Pool), shown only once in 1975, when it was made by him and of which the whereabouts are unknown. In it, a tripod "wears" a cap with the title written in lead letters, an air pump is hung by a chain and a submerged photograph floats in suspension. According to the curator, for Tunga this was one of the first experiments with objects that became symbols in his work.

Also to be found there are rarities such as Desenhos Protuberantes (Protuberant Drawings), Vê-nus (Nude Sees ), a good part of the Objeto do Conhecimento Infantil (Objects of Childish Knowledge) series, watercolours and Indian ink from the 1970s. Rare, also, are the materials that can be seen on floor 1S, which houses a kind of atelier - or cabinet - of Tunga, composed of works, archive material, artist notebooks, studies and pieces such as Untitled, from the Morphological series - in ceramics, bronze, latex - and faiences developed by him at the Bordallo Pinheiro factory, in Portugal.

Among Tunga's most recent works is "From 'La Voie Humide'", on Floor 1. This is a series of sculptures he made in 2014. They are spatial compositions in which the artist brought together different materials - such as plaster, terracotta and crystals -, supported by a kind of tripod, with cauldrons and body parts in direct reference to alchemy. For the curator, this may have been one of his last series.

SERVICE

From December 11, 2021 to April 10, 2022
Itaú Cultural (1st floor, underground 1 and underground 2) - Avenida Paulista, 149 - São Paulo/SP
Instituto Tomie Ohtake (Salas 1 e 2 e Grande Hall) - Av. Faria Lima 201 - Aché Cultural Complex (Entrance through Rua Coropés, 88) - Pinheiros SP

Realization: Equipe Itaú Cultural e Instituto Tunga

Partnership: Instituto Tomie Ohtake

Curator: Paulo Venancio Filho

Exhibition design: Isa Gebara

Classification: 12 years old

Free admission, no previous booking required