Catalogue > At random

Isa, a young artist invited to propose a project for an exhibition, sets out to stage a dramatic adaptation of ‘The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas’, a satirical 19th-century novel by Machado de Assis. The rehearsal is marred by difficulties which the viewer must interpret as being due to the fact that Isa is a woman, young, black, all of the above, or as difficulties anyone would encounter. The novel delivers a mordant critique of Brazilian society in the guise of a satirical autobiography narrated by a dead protagonist. In 1880 its author foresaw the abolition of slavery that would happen in Brazil eight years later, but predicted that it would be a mere formal measure, informally everything would remain the same. The film was shot at the Ibirapuera pavilion designed by Oscar Niemeyer and its cast is made up of professional and non-professional actors, several of whom worked or currently work for the São Paulo Biennial Foundation. Featuring actors recast from another project Guimarães had worked on eight years earlier, O Ensaio is a film about the passage of time, about short lived revolutionary actions, about institutional memory, racism, and sexism in Brazil.

Tamar Guimarães (b. 1967, Belo Horizonte, BR, lives and works in Copenhagen) is a visual artist working with film and other forms of time based media, exploring situations both residual and contemporary, of art, architecture and the institutions that present them. She often works with actors alongside non-actors in semi-fictional short films. Another, more documentary strand of her work has delved into spectral architecture, ritual effervescence, states of rapture and their intersection with the nation state. Recent solo exhibitions include Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Jeu de Paume Satellite, Paris; Gasworks, London and the IMA Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Guimarães’ works have been included at the 33rd, 31st and the 29th São Paulo Biennial; the Belgian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial; the International Exhibition at the 55th Venice Biennial; at the LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA); Baltimore Museum of Art (USA); the 11th Sharjah Biennial (UAE); the Banff Centre, Alberta (CA); Malmö Museum (SE) and South London Gallery; the Guggenheim Museum, NY (USA); the SculptureCenter (NY/USA); the 7th Gwangju Biennial (SK); the 3rd Guanghzhou Triennial (CN); the Jumex museum, Mexico (MX); Frac/Le Plateau, Paris (FR); CAC Synagogue de Delme (FR).