Ivens Machado at Pivo / Sao Paulo

Ivens Machado
Raw of the world

04.09. – 29.10.2016

PIVO
Edifício Copan, loja 54
Avenida Ipiranga, 200
01046-925 São Paulo
Brasil
http://www.pivo.org.br/



Photos: Everton Ballardin
Images courtesy PIVO
In
September, in parallel with the 32nd São Paulo Biennial´s opening, Pivô
presents the second edition of the program “Fora da Caixa”. On this
occasion, the main exhibition space of the institution will be occupied by a
comprehensive survey of the Brazilian artist Ivens Machado, curated by Kiki
Mazzucchelli
The exhibition “Raw of
the world” brings together a set of sculptures, videos and drawings
focusing on the first two decades of Machado’s production. Known for his
sculptural work, in which he uses raw materials typical of popular construction
(such as concrete, rebars, broken glasses, etc.), the artist began his career
in the 1970s in Rio de Janeiro, having as interlocutors names such as artist
Anna Bella Geiger and art critics Fernando Cochiaralle and Paulo Herkenhoff.
Machado is part of an
artist’s generation who came immediately after the groups directly affiliated
to the Brazilian movements of Concretism and Neoconcretism. He chose to forge
his own aesthetic path, and because of that found some resistance
within the local art scene. His practice did not follow the established
artistic genealogies of that time and had a very controversial approach of
themes such as sexuality and violence.
Mentioning his encounter with Ivens Machado´s
installation exhibited at the 16th São Paulo Biennial (1981) – a large ovoid
shape of reinforced concrete studded with glass shards and suspended by steel
cables – the art critic Paulo Sergio Duarte writes: “Let’s say that if we
could reduce it to the opposition between raw/cooked, we would be in the world
of the raw forms.” The title “Raw of the world” chosen by the
curator is inspired by this reference.