Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence
September 8 - October 29, 2017
Installation View, Logan Center Gallery. Photo by Robert Chase Heishman
Logan Center Exhibitions presents an exhibition by artist Cinthia Marcelle and filmmaker Tiago Mata Machado. Hailing from Brazil, Marcelle and Mata Machado are longtime collaborators. This is the first time their suite of moving image works produced since 2008 are being shown together in the US.
Black Hole (2008) depicts two opposing air currents scattering a mass of white powder across a black ground. From this a series of abstractions emerges, evoking the familiar monochromatic silhouettes of planetary constellations and Rorschach tests. In the constant push and pull between forces, this video offers subtle commentary on the shifting dynamics between individuals and contesting positions. Confronting the poetics and politics of urban life in Brazil and other global locations, The Century (2011) and One Way Street (2013) are interrelated pieces that provide different viewpoints on a shared event—a street protest. The former focuses on a crescendo of street detritus including helmets, rocks, trashcans, clothing, and tires thrown into the spectator’s field of view, whilst the latter offers the reverse shot of a group of “black bloc” protesters hurling objects beyond the camera’s frame. Completing the selection of works on view, Community (and the other process) (2016) presents two versions of an orderly line on the precipice of rupture, one depicted through a group of individuals standing in wait, and the other through an animated line drawing.
Through compellingly staged and abstract scenes of order and chaos, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence speculates on the potential for revolution in everyday life. In doing so, the exhibition attends to the artists’ reflections on violence (and by extension anarchy) as a means to undercut the forces of law, power, and capital.
Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado: Divine Violence is presented by Logan Center Exhibitions and curated by Yesomi Umolu, Exhibitions Curator. Support for this exhibition is provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
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About Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machado
The partnership between Brazilian artist Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974), and Brazilian critic and filmmaker Tiago Mata Machado (b.1974) was initiated in 2008. In the same year, with the curator and filmmaker João Dumans, they founded Katásia Filmes - a production company dedicated to the creation and study of cinema and art in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Marcelle and Mata Machado have collaborated on scriptwriting and film production for numerous projects including the videos 475 Volver (2009) and Cruzada (2010), and the feature film Os Residentes (2011). In 2008, the duo produced their first work Buraco Negro, which was shown at the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010). In 2009, they received a prize from Rumos Cinema e Vídeo Experimental, Itaucultural, São Paulo to develop the vídeo Plataforma. In recent years, Marcelle and Mata Machado have realized a trilogy comprising of the videos O Século (2011), Rua de mão única (2013) and Comunidade (2016). These works have been featured in major international exhibitions and film festivals including the New Museum Triennial, New York (2011); Rochester Art Center (2012); Rotterdam International Film festival (2013); 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013); IV Semana dos Realizadores, Rio de Janeiro (2014); The Havana Film Festival (2014); the Biennale of Moving Images, Geneva (2016); and NGO: Nothing Gets Organised, Johannesburg (2016). In 2017 they produced a new video NAU/NOW for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. Marcelle and Mata Machado live and work in Belo Horizonte, and São Paulo.