Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
A Dream Dreaming a Dream Dreaming, 2020

Virtual loop simulation (developed on Unity platform), b/w, sound
Infinite duration
Commissioned and produced by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) for st_age


The art of Daniel Steegmann Mangrané hinges on the natural and the geometric, often splicing the unfathomable dimension of the forests of his adopted home, Brazil, with the clear lines of abstraction and man-made order. His work of the last decade has incorporated chromatic watercolor studies, kaleidoscopic collages, photography, as well as sculptures with etched leaves and citrus fruit. His recent film and augmented reality projects suggest that a fascination with a kind of organic cinema has been ever-present.
 
His works often derive from an ecological understanding of the complex webs of interdependence found in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil (Mata Atlântica). Such dense tropical forest would have been the first habitat Portuguese colonists encountered on their arrival in the year 1500. A Dream Dreaming a Dream Dreaming is a cinematic installation of potentially infinite duration that derives from a self-generating online animation presented on st_age. Always experienced differently, it conjures the viewpoint of a large feline walking in reverie through a forest. The panther’s dream is persistently interrupted, the forest collapses, and the spell is broken. Confused and drowsy, the panther yawns and stretches, only to find herself inside a similar dreamlike scenario once more. She then starts to explore again, continuously acclimatizing to finding herself in yet another cycle of dreaming and wakefulness.
 
This work is inspired by Indigenous peoples’ perceptions of the forest and of the entities that inhabit it beyond the human: the divine characters of animals, rivers, plants, as well as the xapiris, the shamanic master spirits of the Yanomami people of Brazil. A Dream Dreaming a Dream Dreaming layers different forms of knowledge and knowing— Indigenous wisdom, the images and sensations of sleep, and the artificial intelligence of a computer processor—and calls for new ways of being in the world. –TBA21

PAST LOANS 

DIFF Dharamshala International Film Festival
Venue: Dharamshala and online
Festival duration and screening of our artwork on site:  3-6 November 2022

Group exhibition: Meia-Noite, Anozero’21-22 - Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art
Venue: Convento de Santa Clara a Nova, Coimbra
Curators: Elfi Turpin and Filipa Oliveira
April 1, 2022 - June 26, 2022

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané was born in Barcelona in 1977 and since 2004 has lived in Rio de Janeiro. His research is particularly interested in biological processes and anthropological discourses, which he uses as inspiration to create works that confuse the traditional separations between culture and nature, subjects and objects, reality and dreams, visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal … dissolving them into relationships of mutual transformation.
In recent years Daniel Steegmann Mangrané has shown his work in museums and biennials around the world, among the most recent being the Taipei Biennial, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Berlin Biennial, Serralves Museum, Institut d’art Contemporain Villeurbanne, Nottingham Contemporary, CCS Bard or the São Paulo Biennial. His works are found in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Inhotim, Serralves Museum, Walker Art Center, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, MACBA, Collection Pinault or Castello de Rivoli, among others.