Camila Sposati combines elements of geology, archeology and chemistry in her works. Sposati works in several media, including installations, sculptures, photography and projections. Sposati has exhibited widely in Brazil and abroad, the most noteworthy exhibitions including: Universitário Maria Antônia (São Paulo), Paço das Artes (São Paulo), Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (Salvador), Paço Imperial (Rio de Janeiro), 7th Mercosul Biennial (2009), Tate Modern (London), Museums Quartier (Vienna), Biennial of Moving Images 2001 (London), amongst others. The artist has participated in several residency programmes and has been awarded the following prizes: Prêmio Honra ao Mérito Arte e Patrimônio do Paço Imperial (Rio de Janeiro), an investigation grant from the Cultural Centre Montehermoso (País Basco), the 8th Prêmio de Arte e Tecnologia Sergio Motta in the middle of career category (São Paulo), and Artist Links (British Council).
The artist’s creations involve research and knowledge of scientific experiments. Of note in Sposati’s work is how art and science mix, and the fluidity between both fields. The artist explores layers of history that reflect upon the energy beneath us, in the interior of the Earth. Her works question the micro in relation to the macro, and observe places in relation to the Earth and its geological formation.
Sposati projects not only bisect Earth’s terrestrial surface but open profound cracks, searching for signs of interaction between the surface and interior. Her most recent work within this theme is Teatro Anatômico da Terra, produced specifically for the Art Biennial of Bahia in 2014.
The artist also works with geological elements such as crystals and creates chemical experiments and compositions in a lab in correlation with an architectural dialogue. Smoke is a recurring subject in her works. Sposati views smoke as the explosion of energy, and crystal as a containment of the same (gas vs. solid).
In 2009, she developed and exhibited the research entitled Crescimento Urbano e Processo de Crescimento de Cristal (Urban Growth and Crystal Processes) at the Tokyo Wonder Site, Japan.
Through the British Council’s programme Artist Links, she developed Entropia: Fumaça e Cristal (Entropy: Smoke and Crystals), mediated by The Arts Catalyst, the science-art agency, at University College London in 2007. During this period, she was also Resident Artist at Gasworks, London.
In 2003, supported by an Aschenberg-UNESCO scholarship, she was a Resident Artist at HIAP Cable Factory in Helsinki, Finland.
She created and coordinated the project Fluxo de Arte Belém Contemporâneo, in 2004.
Exhibitions in Brazil and abroad include Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2007); Tate Modern, London (2007); Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil, São Paulo (2008) and Eleven Rivington Gallery, New York (2008).
In 2009, she had a solo exhibition entitled “Nucleation” at Casa Triangulo Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil. She took part in the 7th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, and developed a research project with Radar at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.
She currently lectures on contemporary visual communication and photography at the European Institute of Design, in São Paulo.
When I produce my visual work, I create situations which transform the qualities and physical structure of the material to allow for a change in meaning, similar to how a word can change its meaning.
Therefore, I propose terms which keeps on transforming: unpredictable composition, dissolution of force, and constitution of process, linguistic values which lack a purpose of quantification or measure; instead, these terms are based on the perceptions of relations of proportions and saturations in acts of transformation. Such values seek to establish connections between the whole and the parts as a continuous process, beyond investigating thought through language as an inaccurate and constant form of strength.
I define my artistic research as a process of the natural physics, philosophy and science, where digging means the physical act above Earth, similar to the works of layers of history and scientific narrative (fact and construction).
The works seek to investigate the behaviour of energy in relation to the explosion of smoke, the growth of crystals (chemistry) and the layers of Earth (geology).
As a research artist, I have studied and visited places such as the Amazon, Turkmenistan, Uzebekistan, Guatemala and Japan. I have obtained support from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, Petrobras, British Council, Loughbourough University (Chemistry Department), University College of London, Royal Geological Survey and Tokyo Wonder Site, Motherhemoso (Spain) and Recollets e Cité des Arts (France).
