The solo exhibition Brasil, Hy-Brasil by Eduardo Hargreaves was awarded the 3rd Décio Noviello Prize and took place at Galeria Arlinda Corrêa Lima & Foyer between March 14th and May 28th, 2023.
Click here and read the curatorial text of the exhibition.
In “Brasil, Hy Brasil”, Eduardo Hargreaves presents a set of 25 works at Galeria Arlinda Corrêa Lima. “Similar are either due to the materials used, the physical actions – such as images constructed by erasure, their annulment through mechanisms, destructive, chemical processes – or symbolic and metaphorical actions”, explains the artist. Among the techniques present in the works are drawings, paintings, objects, multimedia installations, video installations and actions performed for video and animations. According to the artist, the set is the result of more than seven years of research, in which drawing is the guiding principle.
The exhibition is the result of a reflection on the exploratory and extractive actions that, little by little, are consuming landscapes and reliefs. The selected works report a unique way of perceiving different modes of disappearance, erasure or subtraction of subjects, places and stories. “Over the last few years, my research has focused on the different forms of subtraction and obliteration of memory, culture and territory. The relationship between the various gestures of erasure and the disappearance of these signs, with the absorption present in death. What is evident in the images is the denial of a territory and the right to memory”, explains Hargreaves.
The exhibition's expography is guided by visual barriers formed by metal fences, common on the borders of mining areas “when there is no longer a mountain to safeguard the open wounds of mineral extraction, they prevent us from seeing reality. This resource is used inside the space, creating physical and visual separations.” For the artist, “Brazil, Hy-Brasil” is an exhibition that is shaped by the meeting of different investigations and processes, connected around a common axis by the words: presence and absence.
The title of the exhibition simultaneously establishes an overlap and confrontation between the country and the symbolism of Hy-Brazil, a ghost island present in Irish mythology, which figured in medieval European cartography. “It is described as a magical island, covered in mist, which appears once every seven years to the eyes of sailors. At the glimpse of its beauty and desire to land, the island ‘retreats’, never being able to be reached, returning to the fog of uncertainty and imagination. This exhibition proposes a contrast and juxtaposition of these two territories, between the real and the fictional.”
“The absent landscapes and figures projected – in drawings, objects, videos, animations and installations – can gain other dimensions, mutually echoing in the field of each individual’s personal memory. The work thus becomes a bridge between the past and the present, to glimpse possible present-futures”, explains the artist.
For Hargreaves, it is urgent to carry out this project with the works, installations, exhibition and individuals who are at his side to carry it out. “I see the resilience of the Décio Noviello Prize over the last few years as having great importance. I believe that the Award will represent a door that opens for the continuity and development of my work into the future”, he celebrates.
Décio Noviello Prize for Visual Arts – Today called the Décio Noviello Prize for Visual Arts, the FCS Visual Arts Occupation Notice has been held since 2008. With changes in format throughout the editions, the Prize is an important tool for stimulating artistic production nationwide, allowing public access to different languages. An initiative already consolidated as a prominent event on the national artistic scene, the award aims to encourage contemporary artistic production and the dissemination of new talents.
