Warm Sun Cold Rain: Brussels Chapter
- Theodore Ereira-Guyer
- Juan Casemiro
- Anderson Borba
- Darks Miranda
2nd – 9th September 2023
From 1st August 2023, artists Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Juan Casemiro began a month-long residency proposed by Brazil based curatorial initiative The Bridge Project in collaboration with Elizabeth Xi Bauer and hosted by ZSenne Art Lab in Brussels. An exhibition of works produced in residency, along with works by artists Anderson Borba and Darks Miranda will be held, opening on 2nd September at ZSenne Art Lab.
Warm Sun Cold Rain: Brussels Chapter is a first collaboration between The Bridge Project and Elizabeth Xi Bauer. The second chapter of the exhibition will take place in São Paulo in November 2023.
This upcoming exhibition conveys each artist’s subjective take on their historical, geographical – almost geological – and sociological surroundings. Imaginary or real landscapes melt and fuse; sculptures revest anthropomorphic or zoomorphic qualities; while whimsical creatures dance with ghosts from the past. In this peculiar ballet of references and identities, the Brazilian sun warms the northern European rainy days, bridging cultures in a shapeshifting common memory.
Theodore Ereira-Guyer‘s work is an ongoing investigation into the subject of memory – what is kept and what is left behind. In a metalinguistic operation, his process of printmaking emulates the mechanism of memory, as it necessarily involves a loss of information between the plate and the paper. Even if it is a technique aimed at reproducibility, Ereira-Guyer uses single or a few compositions being generated per plate – every time a print is made, different aspects are emphasised whereas others are lost.
Juan Casemiro evokes personal experiences in his works: love encounters, mourning, uncertainties. His works include found objects recovered from the streets and trash collections nearby his studio. As well as the use of found objects, the titles of the works reflect his own life as they often reference excerpts of music, poetry and personal text messages. The artist’s architectural training also influences the choice of objects he selects as he often features in his work elements that have been discarded from nearby construction sites or architectural elements such as windows, columns and doors. Overall, Juan Casemiro’s works delve into the political and social dimensions of contemporary Brazil, incorporating elements of architecture, poetry, and composition. His art invites viewers to contemplate the Brazilian working class and the intricate relationship between work, time, and space.
Sculptor Anderson Borba’s works are primarily made of found materials, particularly wood. The artist often incorporates burned and shaped wooden pieces he finds in trash collections near his East London studio. Borba’s recent series of small-scale wall reliefs presented in the exhibition Off The Grid (Lamb Gallery, London, UK, 2021) showcased his intensified techniques, including pasting magazine cut-outs onto the surfaces and carving and varnishing them. These reliefs possess a tactile quality and feature photographic images that resemble ancient tablets merged with unconventional paintings.
Borba’s sculptures challenge traditional coherence and unity by assembling fragmented figures using rough materials with visible joints. Borba’s works often references media portrayals and social dynamics, and they retain a readymade quality through the incorporation of cardboard, fabric, and magazine pages. The artist’s sculptures display untreated surfaces, explicit divisions between front and back sections, and distinct profiles or angles of observation. Borba’s artistic practice embraces the use of found materials, fragmented assemblages, and the exploration of surfaces to create thought-provoking sculptures that engage with societal and political themes.
Darks Miranda is a multidisciplinary artist whose work transits mostly through experimental cinema and sculpture. In her video works, Darks works mostly with found footage, entangled in a montage process that plays with layers and excess, creating compositions and visual universes in between fiction and performed reality. In her sculptural work, the archaeological nature is expanded, as well as the sensation of inhabiting a parallel world: scenographic landscapes are populated by beings forged in a variety of synthetic materials.
Notes to Editors
Theodore Ereira-Guyer (born 1990, London, UK) lives and works between London and Lisbon, Portugal.
From 2009 to 2011 Ereira-Guyer studied at Central St. Martins, London, followed by the Royal College of Art between 2012 and 2014. In 2016 Theodore began studying for his PhD in Contemporary Art at the College of Arts at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Ereira-Guyer’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; the British Museum, London; Tate, London; MoMA, New York, USA.; Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA.; the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal.
In 2023, Millennium BCP Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, and MACAM – Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins, Lisbon, both acquired works by Ereira-Guyer which are now part of their permanent collections.
In 2014 Ereira-Guyer was the recipient of the esteemed Helen Chadwick Award for multidisciplinary artists. In 2019 the artist’s work was exhibited at the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava as part of the 58th Venice Biennale. In 2022, Elizabeth Xi Bauer presented The Thicket, Ereira-Guyer’s first solo exhibition at Elizabeth Xi Bauer, London. In 2022 The Bridge Project, São Paulo, presented Time Lapse a selection of works by Theodore Ereira-Guyer which were created in Brazil and Europe. Theodore Ereira-Guyer and Sam Llewellyn-Jones: Unwinding, presented by Elizabeth Xi Bauer and Umbigo Magazine ran at Galeria Sá da Costa, Lisbon, 16th February – 15th March 2023.
Juan Casemiro (born 1993, Itajubá, Brazil) lives and works between Conceição das Pedras, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo.
In 2022, Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (MAC Niterói), Brazil, presented Retrabalho, a solo show of Casemiro’s work. The same year Museu Mineiro, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, held a solo exhibition of the artist’s work, titled Oito horas não são um dia. His work in the permanent collection of MAC Niterói.
Group shows featuring Casemiro include Quando ícaro sobe ao céu at Mackenzie University,São Paulo; Acervo Rotativo at Oficina Cultural Oswald de Andrade, São Paulo; Bolhas Siderais and Espumas Siderais, at Marli Matsumoto Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo; 13th Bienal de Arquitetura de São Paulo; Contra o silêncio dos espaços infinitos at Massapê Projetos, Massapê, Brazil; and 43rd Waldemar Belisário Plastic Arts Salon, Ilhabela, Brazil.
Anderson Borba (born 1972, Santos, Brazil) lives and works in London.
Borba studied at the Alternative MFA program at the School of the Damned and completed an MFA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
Among his solo exhibitions are I’ve Seen One of These, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, (2022); The End Begins at the Leaf — Anderson Borba & Antonio Tarsis, BeAdvisors Art, London, (2021); Anderson Borba & Alex Canonico, Kupfer Gallery, London, (2021) and Ride the Worm, Set Gallery, London, (2018). He has also participated in group shows: I Could Eat You, Clearing + Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel + Madragoa, Casa de Cultura da Comporta, Comporta, Portugal
(2022); Tragédia!, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, (2022); The Apple Tree, Union Pacific Gallery, London, (2021); Off the Grid, Lamb Gallery, London, (2021); O Canto do Bode, Casa da Cultura da Comporta, Comporta, Portugal (2020); Antifacismo Tropical, Queen Adelaide, London, (2019); Everything Must Go, Assembly Point Gallery, London, (2019); and Sindyyyy, Set Gallery, London, (2019).
Residencies and prizes include: 2022 NTH Space, Turin, Italy; 2020 Herbert Seaborn Memorial Scholarship Prize, Slade School of Fine Arts, London; Gilbert Bayes Scholarship 2019; Yitzhak Danziger, MFA Slade Scholarship, 2015; and AA2A artist residence, Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK.
Darks Miranda (born 1985 in Santos, Brazil) lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.
Miranda’s works has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, London; Galeria Ibeu, Rio de Janeiro; Galeria Athena, Rio de Janeiro; MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro; MAM-RJ (Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro; SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo; Teatro Municipal, São Paulo; Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil; José de Guimarães International Arts Center, Guimarães, Portugal; and Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam,The Netherlands.
In 2020 Instituto Moreira Salles, Brazil, and The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia commissioned the artist to create a new series of works.
In 2022 the first solo show of Miranda’s work, titled Uma noite perigosa na ilha de Vulcano, opened at Carpintaria, Rio de Janeiro. Miranda’s first solo show in São Paulo, Veneno, meu companheiro, will open at Projeto Vênus this year.
The Bridge Project is a curatorial platform based in São Paulo, created by Julie Dumont (born 1974 in Brussels, lives and works between São Paulo and Brussels), active mainly between Brazil, Brussels, and NYC, which aims to create dialogues between artists from different continents and career stages, in exhibition contexts, such as independent spaces, collections, art galleries and institutions.
Elizabeth Xi Bauer Gallery and The Bridge Project present Warm Sun Cold Rain: Brussels Chapter which will run from 2nd – 9th September 2023.
The Private View will be held on 1st September 2023, 6 – 8 pm in the presence of artists. Artists will be available for interviews. The public opening will be held on 2nd September from 4 –7 pm.
The exhibition is on public view 6th – 8th September 4 – 6 pm and 9th September 4 – 7 pm or by appointment with The Bridge Project.
