Glaucis de Morais by Glaucis de Morais

glaucis de morais

The object Wood, cip贸* and carpet 200cm X 270cm X 5cm 1998

*A kind of aerial roots that fall straight down from above branches

A hole Wood and cip贸 300cm X 50cm X 4cm 1998

Great laziness was not conceived for the spectator to seat on, but to bring to his imagination the experience of the usage of a hammock. This proposition, with a dilated stretch, is the empty place for absent bodies and we can notice a connection to the sensual and languid love. An invitation to enjoy this bed of coziness, dilated in its form and constructive act. The hammock calls us to move around it. An experience for the senses.

Great laziness Hammock made with cotton in manual loom 1,2m x 9m x 1,8m 1998

Book printed with white and black ink on acetate. On the bridge Book in Silkscreen on acetate 10cm X 15cm 14 pages 1999

The text-images, in this artist's book, are drained. They are transcriptions of a love conversation, which could be either fictional or true. This text presents us a conversation in which affection is expressed as a whisper. Something that is hardly heard, or listened only in intimacy. "if you were a flower which one would you be? I WOULD BE JASMINE (...) "

A bridge from nowhere to nowhere my lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image: a bridge between abyss. 1999

Crosswords Board and wooden pieces 10cm x 50,5cm x 50,5cm 1999/2002

Concave Site specific Poem carved on walls, later painted in white. 4 walls (2 walls - 266cm x 422,5cm x 0,01cm; 2 others - 266cm x 257cm x 0,01cm) Stage of the carving process 1999/2002 next pages: details

Concrete is a performing art work about the act of building a castle of cards. The work is related to the persistence in keeping the structure of the castle fixed. This work is in continuous construction. Concrete is the outcome of the perseverance in keeping the work standing despite its volatile structure and reconstructing it when the one collapses.

Concrete Performance Construction: castle of cards Variables dimensions 2000/2002

Lines of Thought Nails on wood, text printed on paper 32cm x 193cm x 3cm 2000 Next pages: details

Lines of thought Measureless, 30/07/1998 or later. I am starting to think big, from the small to the almost limitless. The limitless is a winding road that plays with the limit without negating it. I carry on, in no hurry. I look at people rushing through the world, and I'm in no hurry! I need time to reflect. And so it goesâ&#x20AC;Śweaving, darkening, happening, it should be ten metres long by one metre eighty centimetres wide, made with fairly thick thread, it is for lovers of big gestures. So, hammer in hand, starting from nothing, maybe a centimetre, then another and another. It's difficult, difficult keep in focus. How do I confine the intention and show what I want, as I envisage it? Another. Two for each centimetre, one hundred and eighty centimetres, three hundred and sixty quick gestures, more. It is much more necessary to be firm, to go in deeply, if not it falls out. And if it falls out? Do it again. Two lines, almost straight, three hundred and sixty points, insertions. It is to be confined to the wall, to work six hours per day, every day, for two years, and that makes ten meters by one metre eighty. And the weight? It could fall. Can the wall take it? Can I take it? What remains is what will be. The first knots to test. It looks nice like that. Just thinking of the time, I despair of the work, tire just from looking. I continue, I can't stop. It's so easy to stop. Now a gesture without strength, without brutality, just repetition, the head doesn't stop. That's how it is. First fasten it well, pass it over here, over the top, bring it back, take it over there, to the end. Start again. You have to take the guiding thread. Which is the main thread? I changed the thread. It is a question of ability, doing/undoing/redoing. But what am I doing? It is easy to see, it goes inside, and that's what gives the structure. Did I get it right? Let's see. I'm not so afraid of doing it like that. You have to pull it hard. How many threads will it need? Can it be done whole, all at once? And if I become entangled? The body exists in this net, and has its place, points of interest, points of contact. Now I don't lose the thread. My hands burn with wear. The thread runs, sweat drops. I like a tight knot. It's more tense. It's the same. It's different. Both sides are beautiful. It's manual, of the senses, it's the tactile, thought that drains out. It twists onto itself. It's a spiral. Passing my finger over the metal, I sense a sound. It's like those old musical instruments, I don't know their name. I've discovered that I'm very connected to the sound of words. To have air. To be frequent and irreversible movement. How many summers? How many will read? To exceed. To be in the world and prolong time. A work that is much more gesture than result. To rest and sleep at leisure. And when tiredness comes, interest is broken, think of the poet. That one about doing. How useless it is to do things, just like not doing. Like him, doing: (â&#x20AC;Ś) doing the useless knowing it is useless, and knowing well that it is useless and that its sense will never be anticipated, doing: because it is more difficult than not doing, it would be difficult to say it with more contempt, or then say more directly to the noexistent reader, that what has been done was for nobody. Only then stop, be without end.

Key of sand is a key mark in a sand box. The impression of the key creates an empty space in the sandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface. This mark is the shade of the referring object. A key presented as an image, but intangible as an object. It is moved from its function. Its matter is the sand itself; matter not resistant to the touch.

Key of sand Printed key in sand / bas-relief / carved figure 160cm X 160cm X 10cm 2001

Through... Projection in looping of 80 Slides on wall (Partial sequence with 18 slides) Variable dimensions 2001

In Perimeter I carry out a walk on the borders of flowerbeds, springs, small walls that set the limits between the outside and the interior of these spaces. Measuring these lines with my steps, I begin to walk from a point and finish the walk at the starting point again. When I lose balance and fall I restart the action of walking from the beginning.

Perimeter Video installation Four wooden boxes with television sets Variable dimensions 2003

I try in the video Play by heart to fold an origami just from my memory with no leaflet references. Its a video about being absolutely immersed in an artistic act . It is about attempting and failing, and trying again until I finish the origami.

Play by heart Video 16:30 min. 2003 / 2004

Neighbourhood is a video and photo installation about the city. It is about being in the world, inside of buildings, watching television in the middle of the night. The landscape of the city appears here as a constellation of lights in the windows of the neighbours.

Neighbourhood Video and photo installation 10 photos (17 x 25cm each one) Variable dimensions 2004

Neighborhood Details of the assembly of the 10 pictures. Assembly in the horizontal, totaling 17 x 250cm (approximately). Details of 4 pictures.

Opening Slide projection on wall 245 x 168 (approximately) 2003 / 2005

One thousand and one nights... presents three dearly loved cartoon characters: Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Minnie, dancing to the rhythm of an Islamic song. This video was shot in the Jardin des Tuileries, and records a street seller temporarily installed in one of the gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s avenues, selling these little Disney puppets. The video seeks to comment on cultural differences and proximities in a globalized world in which the need for survival necessitates a search for ways of adaptation or resistance to this world.

One thousand and one nights Video Looping 2003

Vanishing landscape: suspension shows the record of the movement of aeroplanes in the sky, sometimes blue, sometimes grey. The photographs of birds show the moment when I try to capture them passing quickly in front of the lens, recording blurred images of this moment, or even the empty space left by not managing to capture the flight. The video of aeroplanes marking a clear sky indicates time slowed down, showing the traces left by aeroplanes as lines drawn in space, becoming slowly dissipated. They are images that talk about suspension as a momentary pause, as a state of elevation and contemplation.

Vanishing landscape: suspension Video and photo installation. 7 photographs 100cm x 70cm (each) Variable dimensions 2003 / 2004

Vanishing landscape: transition 2 photographs mounted side by side. 100cm x 70cm (each) 2003

Vanishing landscape: instant is a reflection upon time and speed of images within the landscape. In this video the landscape appears to be an abstract image; fast registers from the window of a train. The landscape disappears in these blurred images produced by the proximity of the trees to the window. And in a fraction of the video it is possible to identify a fast image which is just noticed if the expectator decelerates his view of the work.

Vanishing landscape: instant Video projection Looping 2003 / 2004

In the video Vanishing Landscape: fugue, the small and fast insects, in their enthusiasm, are opposed to the image of a paused landscape. The movement of these insects is similar to the form of fugue of the Baroque music. The notion of fugue, more specifically in Bach's music, according to Bruno Kiefer, approaches a mathematical conception of the world, involving permanence notions and dynamism at the same time. In fugue we can observe an internal movement that is repeated and retaken by each element - or voice deriving from the main theme. Fugue can also be understood as an escape, or as something that resists being captured, and slips through the fingers. As that which remains of something, its trace, and its margin.

Vanishing Landscape: fugue Video-projection Looping 2003 / 2004

Vanishing Landscape: catching Video to be presented on a TV set. Looping 2003 / 2004

In Vanishing Landscape: catching, I try to capture the image of birds that quickly pass in front of the camera. A way of fastening the landscape with a hunter's eye, trying to retain for a few moments the images that rapidly escape through the screen surface.

In Vanishing Landscape: paradise, a book that was appropriated, gathers images of a place where happiness reigns. A garden of perfect harmony where the animals, there represented, live together in a utopian atmosphere. Starting from the child's imaginary evoked by the nature of the book, I try to contemplate the infinite search for an idyllic place, product of fantasy and of the naive desire to find primordial purity. Idealized symbol of a perfect society.

Vanishing Landscape: paradise Appropriation of childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book 17cm x 19cm x 16,5cm (open) Installed on wall 2005 Next page: details

Réservé / Reserved is a public space action. It is an acrilic sign insertion with Réservé printed on it. I walked the streets of Paris placing the signs in park benches.

October 14th, 2003 Monday I'm sitting facing a white wall next to the studio´s window from which one I can see the Seine river. It´s a bit later than 6:30 p.m., the sun is shinning outside. Summer days are longer here, therefore I believe I can still go out and place the first acrylic sign on a park bench. On the table where I work there are photographs I have just received by mail. There are images from home and they make me feel a bit more comfortable. There´s a familiarity of home and an emphasis on the distance as well. But right here the longest distance can be traced rapidily, because the city is flat and its ways provide a fast drainage. However, the distance I perceive between me and the people who live in this place seem to be bigger than the ocean. I have already packed a few things I am used to carrying in each of my walks: a bottle of water, something to eat, some

money, my passport, the underground ticket, the city and underground maps. The chosen park is right across from the Louvre Museum, perhaps a kilometre or two from here. I could walk, but the underground paths are more appealing to me right now. With an underground map I find the station where I am I go from

St.Paul to Tulleries, line 1 towards La Defense. 6:55p.m. Underground. Transit. 7:18 p.m.

Réservé / Reserved Action in public spaces Photos and text edited as an artist book 2003/2004

The Tuileries underground station reaches a side entrance of the park and such entrance faces a small park: a roller coaster, a wheel, children laughing, sounds of automobiles passing by and a familiar word: churros… I am right across from a churros stand. All parks here are surrounded by railings and some do not allow bikes or dogs… dry wind, dust round the legs, twisters. The park is crowded and the best places are taken. This bench where I am sitting on is in the sun, but also clearly visible, because right across there are the tables of a small coffee shop. Measuring the area… I walk. Another one seems to be better, in a shadow, tourists around, a girl chasing pigeons, a couple lying down nearby. 7:45p.m. At the moment I was about to place the sign I was approached by a man … he asked me about the time, sat next to me and tried to start a conversation. I had noticed him coming in my direction before he sat down, and his presence had been announced by his glance. I avoided his questions about what language I spoke… Spanish... he asked… English? Feeling embarrassed at his presence I remained quiet… he left after some time. Unusual people share benches

here. At certain places in the park one is not allowed to sit on the grass. There was an attempt to break the sign. The couple seems to have noticed me and are now sitting quiet. A man walking proved to be suspicious about the writing inscribed on the sign … and analysed the couple

… 15 minutes have passed. This is not a good place for taking pictures without being noticed. I ´ve got to find a better place. Other people sat down. They are posing to a picture next to the sign, it seems that here even the smallest things turn into touristic attractions, small monuments. Put my camera in the backpack and followed what was going on opposite the bench. Eric, a guy who was sharing it with me asked about

the purpose of my staying, whether I was a tourist, the place I came from… Small talk, exchange of feelings about the cities, cultures and ways of leading a life. The park closes at 9:00p.m. the acrylic sign remained on the bench. I walk towards the wayout and the nearest underground station. July 15th, 2003 Tuesday While walking through the park I check if the sign is still there, but it is gone. July 16th, 2003 Wednesday Rainy day, cloudy sky and strong wind. The noise of the cars on the avenue across from the building invade the livingroom. Today I spent almost the whole day in the studio. Day of washing-up clothing and exchanging impressions with my neighbours. Chats about museums, work…. common impressions. It´s 7:43p.m., I´m going out trying to do something. Changed the camera to a camcorder, I believe it is easier this way. I may keep at a longer distance. 7:45p.m. 8:00p.m. The Seine is dark green. After crossing the bridge… walk by coffee shops, a small hairy dog searches for its owner. The cathedral is right there. On its side there´s a park. It´s cold, much colder than

yesterday, but I think it is better this way, I wish I had just brought a shirt with me…it would have been more comfortable. Worn green benches due to its usage and also the weather. Toys, a boy and his father. A couple plays in a see-saw. Each one balances his and her own weight, test each others

strenghth, find a balancing point. He gives up a little, letting her 'win' the game, as if they were wrestling,but not worrying about the score, just their physical contact. Come play with me… Come with me… Come… There are lots of people here, I won´t be able to place the sign without anyone noticing.

RĂŠservĂŠ / Reserved Partial sequence of 5 photographs (Text printed with images on photographic paper)

Exercice cĂŠrĂŠbral / Brain Exercise Insertion of posters in the streets of Paris. Poster produced from a game of crossword puzzles, in black and white photocopy. 42 x 29,7cm 2003 Next page: Work documentation

Formal Association Two Photographies 20 x 54cm 2003 / 2005

In Dance! I want to think about subtle ways of resisting the logic of productivity and competitiveness imposed upon us by our society. This idea is shown in the phrase that starts the video: “When they say: shut up and work…Dance!”. The dance in this video appears as a metaphor for freedom, joyfully and forcefully confronting the alienating silence to which we are often reduced, with rhythm and music. The songs chosen are performed by the Peruvian singer Lucha Reyes and the Mexican singer Lucha Reyes. They are songs that gently evoke small revolutions, the joyful reaction to an oppressive system, to a status quo that favours the few.

Dance! Video projection Variable dimensions 2005

Insertions: The public space as an experiment in places To the open sky “Through the fields, through the deserts Throught the woods, through the gardens or through the streets, There's been a time with art work / set in the open sky. They're in their own places/ in their time; they live outside Human-being creations, they measure themselves/ in the landscape scale, From the cosmos to the lived world/ modestly or courageously They still live through/ of its photographic memory, They make image.” Christophe Domino

Walks, diversions, parks, markets, turmoil of people walking fast in the city centres, smells, sounds, movement, dust and thermal sensations. What would it be like to be immersed in the world, in the city and on streets? Each one of us live circumscribed in certain spaces. Spaces organized into streets, neighbourhoods and cities. As an artist I grow from my own experiences in the urban landscape, and in particular the daily routes, to elaborate my art work. I investigate how the space configurations direct our moving around and also in what way we make use of such spaces of transit and life. From my work entitled Réservé/ Reserved accomplished during my staying at the Cité des Arts in Paris/2003, I research the relationships between external and internal spaces, questioning the idea of being in a place, owning it and living it. The relation of the individuals with their habitat may be studied from many different angles: the anthropological, the social, the political and the philosophical. What I intend is to think about them in an artistic context and question the idea of how an artist may be inserted in the numerous interactions with the space and its surroundings. Questionings similar to that are also constantly present in various artists' researches as the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica or, for instance, Francis Allÿs, Gabriel Orozco and Sophie Calle. According to the author Christophe Domino in À ciel ouvert: l'art contemporain à l'échelle du paysage (To the open sky: contemporary art in the landscape scale), who states that from the 1960s, artists turned themselves to outdoor spaces, focusing on the landscape and the city, i.e., the space and time of the real world as a new dimension to be worked on: “Acting in the social space: if the public spaces and the collective landscapes are still a conquering field to the artist, it is not in a production plan of shapes and objects, but much more in the one of intervention, dispersed gestures in the present. To sum up it is about the attempt to turn visible the moments or figures of the social scale.”

I exercise a process of creation which tries to make visible, I mean to bring to a recognizable and shared significance system, the information surrounding us. Working with gestures over the urban field as in Réservé/ Reserved where I inserted acrylic signs on park benches with the word “reserved” written on

them- and also through other media such as video, photography and installation, I suggest a look at the space , that one which determines our movement and our identity. Retracing the space, changing its function, experimenting different directions to the same place are the main objectives of my researches. I research the relation between public and private spaces. When does a place belong to us? Would it be possible to turn a common living place into your own? What sets apart these two definitions of space? According to the French author Michel de Certeau the urban weave presents itself as a place. To this author the place is fixed and stable. It is about the city drawing, its urbanization and planning, executed many times before implementing the traffic of its future users. The space, according to Certeau, is the crossing of the mobile, it is not fixed, but variable. In this sense, there is “(...) space always that we consider directional vectors, amounts of speed and time variable.” (Certeau - L'invention du quotidien). Therefore the drawing of our urban weave is practiced by its users, who turn it into transit spaces. I mention, as an example, the work Réservé/Reserved an action developed in public spaces. About the insertion of signs with the inscription Reserved in parks and squares. The setting of the work firstly took place in Porto Alegre / Brazil and later went to Paris/France. In this work I am interested in pondering over the strategies of occupancy of public places, places with no owners or personal identities. I start from parks and squares. Strategic places in urban centres work as a confluence of people busy with their leisure activities and sports, people resting or meeting, manifestations of the most varied connotations. A place for street markets and get-togethers surrounded by the city limits. It welcomes a number of users and it is also a stop for wanderers. With Reserved I try to invite street walkers to reflect upon the senses the inscription evokes and in what way they make usage of his place when in transit. Another matter comes appearing in my works. How can the landscape be captured and changed into art images? In what way the contemplation is still possible in a time of speed and information overload? I try to lead the spectators to reduce the speed of his movement or his look at my artistic proposals. The time of these experiences has a feature of deceleration. An attempt to steal the speedy flow in which we daily find ourselves inserted into. The speed of the traffic, the means of communication, people who run up and down and barely notice one another, the 30-second advertisements, the action movies and their fast takes with special effects and no content. Vanishing Landscape is a video projection where I attempt to approach these matters. This project was developed during a trip from Paris to Köln. It's a register of the landscape in video filmed through the window of the train. They are colourful stains, abstract shapes appearing right in front of the viewer due to the train's fast acceleration and the choice of proximity of the focus to the window. However, the video is not just a compilation of these abstract images, but mainly a second in which a fast image, a fragment of the landscape blinks in the image. A moment may not be noticed in case the spectator isn't paying attention to what goes on in the video.

Glaucis de Morais

Glaucis de Morais Born in Brazil, 1972 146, Cesar Lombroso street apt 06 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil Zip code: 90420-130 E-mail: glaucisdemorais@hotmail.com

Education 2000-02 Master in Fine Arts (Mestrado em Poéticas Visuais), Art Institute, University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul-UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil). 1992-1997 B.F.A. in Drawing, Art Institute, University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil. Solo Exhibitions 2004 Vanishing landscape: fugue. Espaço de Montagem, Art Institute, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brasil. 2002 Love situations a poetic view of interwoven affairs in visual arts, Pinacoteca Barão do Santo Ângelo Gallery, Art Institute, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brasil. 2000 Concrete, Torreão Gallery, Porto Alegre, Brasil. 1994 Drawings and paintings, João Fahrion Gallery at the Museum of Art/ Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil. Group Exhibitions

Project at Lost in space: III World Social Forum (Artistic Interventions at Federal University). Porto Alegre, Brasil. (Site: www.ufrgs.br/artes/escultura/ ).2002 Rumos Project 2002-2003 - Young Brazilian Art. Itaú Cultural Institute: Palace of Arts, Belo Horizonte, Brasil; Rumos Project 2002-2003 - Young Brazilian Art, Itaú Cultural Institute, São Paulo, Brasil. 2002 Writing the place / Rumos Project. Itaú Cultural Institute, Belo Horizonte, Brasil; Poetic from the Attitude: Transitory and Precarious / Rumos Project. Joaquim Nabuco Foudation, Recife, Brasil. 2001 Home. Independent exhibition with 8 artists, Porto Alegre, Brasil. 2000 In Corpore. Obra Aberta Gallery, Porto Alegre, Brasil. 1997 25x25. Porto Alegre in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Brasil. 1994 Contemporary Perspective. Mario Quintana Cultural Center, Porto Alegre, Brasil. Scholarship and Residence 2005 61º Salão Paranaense. Contemporary Art Museum of Paraná, Curitiba, Brasil; 15º International Electronic Art Festival VideoBrasil. Associação Cultural Video Brasil, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo, Brasil. 2000-02 Scholarship for Master Research. CAPES (Brazilian Government). 2003 Artist in residence. Iberê Camargo Foundation - at Cité des Arts, Paris. Reserved Project, intervention in public spaces (Paris), photos and texts.

Other Activities 2006 7º Festival Estival. San Martin de Los Amdes, Neuquén, Argentina. 2005 En décalage. Oulu-huc 2004 Professor at Art Center, Santa Catarina art projects / Studios Campus, Paris, França; Border University, Florianópolis, Brasil. 1996-06 Graphic Effects: Subjectivity and Public Spaces. Memorial designer. do Rio Grande do Sul, V World Social Forum (Video exhibition), Porto Alegre, Brasil. 2004 Living geometry. Contemporary Art 803/804 Gallery, Florianópolis, Brasil. 2003 Between two points. FEEVALE Gallery, Novo Hamburgo, Brasil; Reserved.