O que sobrou da 1a Corrida de Carroças do Centro do Recife, 2012/2014

Installation view: Atopia – Migration, Heritage and Placelessness. Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo – Lima, Lima, Peru, 2017

Photo: Juan Pablo Murrugarra
Installation view: Atopia – Migration, Heritage and Placelessness. Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo – Lima, Lima, Peru, 2017

Photo: Juan Pablo Murrugarra
Installation view: Atopia – Migration, Heritage and Placelessness. Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo – Lima, Lima, Peru, 2017

Photo: Juan Pablo Murrugarra
Commissions
Collection

Installation with 47 Lightjet prints on matte photo paper with matte lamination, framed in "Caixeta" wood without glass in varying sizes; 5 newspaper reproductions Lightjet prints on matte photo paper with matte lamination, framed in "Caixeta" wood, size 35 x 59 cm (each); 15 digital prints of reproductions of documents on Offset Paper 90 gr. with aluminum frames with glass, in A4 size: 21 texts in Portuguese printed in white microfiber canvases with "Balsa" wood supports, in varying sizes; 1 pamphlet with Risograph print, Brazilian walnut frame with glass, size 13 x 22 cm; 1 wall full of Risograph prints pamphlets; 1 mineral pigment ink print on cotton paper, size 63 x 63 cm, mounted on black aluminum frame with glass, 86 numbered angles made of acrylic; 1 cork model, manually cut on sheet of plywood, size 73 x 140 cm, with red pins.
Overall dimensions variable
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary


In his practice, Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade explores scenarios – both imagined and fabricated – as a sociologist, researcher, and artist. The works are often fantastical in their conception and execution, resulting in powerful confrontations that tickle the divide between reality and fantasy. Much of his practice reflects on scenarios in his native Brazil, including O Levante (The Uprising) enacted in the city of Recife in a fervent burst of fleeting anarchy in 2012. In O Levante, de Andrade sought to confront the technically illegal, yet commonplace, use of horses within the city center. Understanding the law as a relentless reminder to the urban public of those “who own the land,” the artist organized an almost implausible one-day horse race under the guise of a film. 

O que sobrou da 1a Corrida de Carroças do Centro do Recife (What's left of the 1st Horse-Drawn Cart Race of Downtown Recife), is an extensive documentation of this race, placing exhilarating photographs of the urban jockeys alongside news headlines of recent political catastrophes in Brazil – a juxtaposition that symbolically underscores everyday life and crises on both sides of the divide. – Alicia Reuter


*1982 in Maceló, Brazil | Living and working in Recife, Brazil