(this page was last updated in February 2018)
Born in Viçosa, Brazil, 1967.
Lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark and Trancoso, Brazil.
Represented by Galeria Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel.
PIPA 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016 nominee.
Tamar Guimarães is an artist based in Copenhagen. Thinking of documents as palimpsests, her practice proposes historical narratives as contingent and fluid, and as spaces from which one can speculate on the present. She’s involved in the organization of small, intimate gatherings, collective readings, small-scale public talks and film screenings, invested on the possibilities of creating transient micro-communities and minor public events.
Recent solo exhibitions: “Programa Fisuras”, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, 2016; “The Florists from Beyond the Grave”, SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway, 2015; “Canoas”, Pink Summer, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy, 2014. Recent group exhibitions in 2015: 56th Venice Biennale, Belgium Pavillon, Venice, Italy; “Ver-Revelar”, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León,Spain; “Under The Same Sun: Art From Latin America Today”, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico; “I See So I See So”, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany; “Rainbow in the dark”, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Swede; “Project 35: The Last Act”, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2013:
“The Florists from Beyond the Grave”, solo exhibition at SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Norway, 2015.
Ana Teixeira Pinto
In Tamar Guimarães’ practice the dead are always at work, and the past is as porous as the present. In her manifold films and installation works spiritism, nation-building, colonial narratives and modernist forms, create a grammar of displacement and deferral, in which trauma is always present but never apparent. Mining historical records and archives, the artist’s intricate narratives treat history as a dynamic and ever-changing system of correspondences and retrospective links, which stage an ongoing negotiation between personal biography and collective history.
A Família do Capitão Gervásio [Captain Gervasio’s Family] (2013/2014) ––a collaboration with Danish artist Kasper Akhøj–– portrays the mental landscape as a social rather than psychological territory. The film juxtaposes two geographies, the first material, the second spectral. Revolving around the community of Palmelo, in the State of Goiás ––a town where roughly half of the inhabitants function as psychic conduits to the world of the spirits, while also holding day-jobs as civil servants–– A Família do Capitão Gervásio recounts a medium’s psychic voyage, in which she charts twenty astral cities hovering above the whole of the Brazilian territory. These cities reflect the system of governance of their earthly counterparts, albeit in an idealized manner, populated by benign and enlightened agents of social democracy. Shot in several locations, which, though miles apart from each other, are edited into a spatial continuity, A Família do Capitão Gervásio ties the medium’s journey into the afterlife’s boundless and phantasmal modernity to cinematic spectrality––cinema, the ultimate modern medium is also the consummate ashen grey world of the haunted and the ghostly.
But the artist has already surveyed the psychic healing of the social-body in a previous work, A Man Called Love (2008), taking as its starting point the story of Brazilian psychic Francisco Candido Xavier, to whom the dead dictated more than 400 books. In Guimarães film’s he appears as a channel for the contradictions in Brazil’s social and cultural order, whose symptoms are social as well as psychological. During the dictatorship years, Xavier’s visions of spectral nation building mirror the left’s yearning for social justice. His assurances of redemption, however, conflate social utopia with the after life, deferring the prospect of revolution. The film Canoas (2010) portrays another missed encounter, that of modernism and modernity. Shot in “Casa das Canoas”, the house of famed architect Oscar Niemeyer, during a cocktail party, the film lingers on the building’s impeccable architectural lines, surrounded by lush vegetation, the glamorous attire of the party revellers, and the servant’s immaculate uniforms, pointing to the zone of friction between aesthetic ideals and social reality, intellectual discourse and lived experience.
Whereas in Canoas the servants are fully integrated into both the social order and domestic design, Guimarães’ earlier works Listed Entries on Jan Leton and Jan Leton and the Archive (2006) deal with the slave as a cipher for everything foreign. Jan Leton, was, as far as accounts go, an African slave who was sent to the Bailiff of Skagen as a gift in the early 19th century. As a signifier for the first wave of economic globalization, Jan Leton is portrayed as totally alien to the parochial economy of the local village. The villagers are threatened by his blackness and the priest refuses to grant him a Christian burial. To emphasize his bestiality, Jan Leton is always accompanied by a monkey. He stands for the inaugural moment of exposure to the absolute other––as if such exposure could be circumscribed to one singular moment. Whilst Listed Entries on Jan Leton lists all references to Jan in alphabetical order, Jan Leton and the Archive recounts the artist’s search for his elusive character. The ever-changing nature of his story, rather than an insight into his seemingly eventless life, provides a mirror of the life of the local community and how it attempts to narrate itself, at times cruel and possibly callous, at times kind and sheltering, yet always candid and remote from the slave trade. With Jan Leton, as is often the case with Tamar Guimarães’ work, the past is in constant dialogue with the present; historical events, however, are not simple chronological moments, they are place-holders for political positions. And stories, here as in most of the artist’s work, often appear as a puzzle in which there are too many extra pieces––each of which points to a partial truth; each of which expresses the identity and non-identity of the parts to the whole.
***
Ana Teixeira Pinto is a writer from Lisbon, living in Berlin. She is currently a lecturer at the UdK (Universität der Künste) Berlin and contributes regularly to publications such as e-flux Journal, Art-Agenda, Mousse, Frieze/de, Domus, Inaesthetics, The Manifesta Journal, and Texte zur Kunst.
Future
Group exhibition, Lunds Konsthall, Sweden.
Double solo project, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA.
Double solo project, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA.
Group exhibition, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, Getty Foundation and LACMA, LosAngeles, USA.
Solo Exhibitions
2016
-Programa Fisuras, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
2015
-The Florists from Beyond the Grave, SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway
2014
-Canoas, Pink Summer, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy
2012
-The Last Days of Watteau, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo, Brasil
-L’au-Delà (Des Noms et Des Choses), Jeu de Paume Satellite at Maison d‘art Bernard Anthonioz, Nogent, France
-The Afterlife (of Names and Things), Arhus kunstbygning, Arhus, Denmark
2011
-The Work of the Spirit (Parade), Gasworks, London, England
2010
-A Man Called Love, Artspace Sydney, Sydney, Australia
-Dura Lex Sed Lex, no Cabelo só Gumex, David Risley Gallery,Copenhagen, Denmark
2009
-A Man Called Love, IMA Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
-Dura Lex Sed Lex (no cabelo só Gumex), Solo show at Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria
2006
-Thinking Aloud, Overgaden, Copenhagen, Denmark
Group Exhibitions
2015
-56th Venice Biennale, Belgium Pavillon, Venice, Italy
-Ver-Revelar, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León,Spain
-Under The Same Sun: Art From Latin America Today, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
-Séance Fiction, Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada
-Me and You and Everyone We Meet, BAR Project at the Zumzeig Cinema, Barcelona, Spain
-OLHO, Espaço Itaú de Cinema, São Paulo; Espaço Itaú de Cinema, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
-I See So I See So, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany
-Rainbow in the dark, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden
-Architektur-Visionen # 1-6, Metropolis Kino, Hamburg, Germany
-CFB 25 Anos, Casa França Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
-Project 35: The Last Act, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
2014
-31ª Bienal de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, São Paulo, Brasil
-ICA @ 50: Pleasing Artists and Publics since 1963, Institute of
-Contemporary Art (ICA) / University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
-Learning Site, Konstföreningen Aura, Lund, Sweden
-Les Rencontres Internationales, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
-Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
-Future Scenarios with an open end, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Suttgart, Germany
2013
-The Encyclopedic Palace – 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
-Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
-The Insides Are on the Outside I O interior está no exterior, Casa de Vidro Lina Bo Bardi, São Paulo, Brasil
-Sin motivo aparente, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain
-Better Homes, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, USA
-Ambiguações, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
-Of perishable materials, Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdańsk, Poland
-PAMI (Peckham Artists’ Moving Image), South London Gallery, London, UK
-Spaces of Action / Trienal de Arquitetura, Palácio Sinel de Cordes, Lisboa, Portugal
-CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, Cinematek, Copenhagen, Denmark
-Sight and Sounds: Global film and video, The Jewish Museum NYC, New York, USA
2012
-Novo Museo Tropical, Teoretica, San José, Costa Rica
-XIX Image Symposium: Bewitched System. The Exorcising Role of images, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain
-Project 35, Centre PasquArt, Kunsthaus Centre d’Art, Biel/Bienne, Switzerland
-Drop the Pin, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
-Do You Remember the Future, curated by Simon Sheikh, St.Petersburg, Russia
-The Loitering Presence of the rational Actor, Universal Studio, Manhattan, USA
-LUX/ICA Biennial of Moving Images, Londres, UK
-TRAMWAY art film biennial, Glasgow, Scotland
-En Obras. Coleção Teixeira de Freitas, TEA – Tenerife Espacio de lasArtes, Santa Cruz de Tenerife , Spain
-“Not Me”: Subject to Change, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation,
-CIFO Art Space, Miami, USA
2011
-Os Primeiros Dez Anos, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo, Brasil
-Itinerância da 29ª Bienal de São Paulo, Palácio das Artes, Belo
-Horizonte, Brasil
-About a House, Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
-En Obras Coleção Teixeira de Freitas, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las
-Artes, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
-Stories, in between, Stiftelsen 3,14, Bergen, Norway
-24 Advertisements, Vancouver, Canada
-Subjective Projections, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germany
-The Return of the Losers, Kalmar Konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden
-All that Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism, Derby Quad, Derbyshire, England
-Tudo è, Fondazione Pitti, Osservatorio Arti Contemporanee (OAC), Florence, Italy
-Mitologias, Citè des Arts, Paris, France
-The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista, Centre d’Art Contemporaine
-Synagogue de Delme, Delme, France
-Viennale Film Festival, Vienna, Austria
2010
-The Traveling Show, Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba, Sweden
-Lunds Konsthall Presentation, Lund, Sweden
-Epílogo, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Zapopan, Mexico
-ICI Project 35, Independent Curators International, Multiple Venues, New York, USA
-Grand Domestic Revolution, Casco Projects, Utrecht, Netherlands
-29º Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
-Monkey See, Monkey Do, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, VitoriaGasteiz,Spain
-The watchers, the liars, the dreamers, Frac Ile-de-France / Le Plateau, Paris, France
-Beyond, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
-Traveling Show, La Coleccion Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico
-No Soul For Sale, Tate Modern, London, UK
-Nordic Art Triennial, Eskilstuna Museum, Eskilstuna, Sweden
-Images Film Festival and Experimental Media Congress, Toronto, Canada
-Second World Cycle, Gallery Nova, Zagreb, Croatia
2009
-31ª Panorama da Arte Brasileira, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil
-Bright Morning Star, Kenneth Anger cycle, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisboa, Portugal
-Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
-Still / Moving / Still, Knokke-Heist, Belgium
2008
-Possibilities of Change, CuratorLab, Åland Art Museum, Åland, Finland
-7th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
-3rd Guanghzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou, China
-Privilege Symposium, Föreningen JA!, Lilith Performance Studio, Malmö, Sweden
-CatBag, An afternoon of Cadavre Exquis, Objectif Exhibitions, Air Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
-The Audacity of Desperation: An Evening of Cadavre Exquis, Performance Space122, New York, USA
-Así se escribe la historia, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
-A Principle of Assumptions, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
-Cast Some Light, Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Visual Arts, Scotland
-I know the world 2, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam, Netherlands
-Interfacing Practices, Magnus Muller Gallery, Berlin, Germany
-Whitney ISP Exhibition, old DIA Center, New York, USA
2007
-CPH DOX international documentary film festival, New Visions, Copenhagen, Denmark
-I know the world, Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, Germany
-Crosskick, Hannover Kunsthalle, Hannover, Germany
-Fair Play Award, Play Gallery for still and motion pictures, Berlin, Germany
-Summer School, Organized by HOMEWORKS, PS122 Gallery, New York, USA
-Larm Festival, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden
-LOOP, Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain
-Unravelled, Signal-to-Noise Festival, Malmö, Sweden
-Filmklubben, Orionbion, Stockholm, Sweden
-Parlour Room, Co-organizer of Temporary Project Space, Copenhagen, Denmark
2006
-ION Film festival, 63rd Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy
-Contemporary Video from Brazilian Artists, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany
-Esplanaden 2006, Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark
-Contested Territories: Representing Postcolonial Interests , Greenland
-National Museum and Archives (NKA), Nuuk, Greenland
-Rethinking Nordic Colonialism, NIFCA – Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
2005
-Populism Talk Series: a collaboration with The Populism Exhibition
-Project, Nifca, Berlin, Germany
2004
-Fristad København, I-N-K (Institut for Nutidkunst), Copenhagen, Denmark
2003
-Who’s the Story Teller, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland; Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway; Overgaden, København, Denmark
-50th Venice Biennale (with Martha Rosler and the Oleanna group), Venice, Italy
-4th Istanbul Student Triennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Residency
2016
18 th Street Arts Center, L.A., USA
2012
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Sttugart, Germany
2011
Cité des Arts: Danish Arts Council residency in Paris
2009
Capacete Residency Program, Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo, Brasil
Awards
2014
Edstrandska Foundation Fellows, Malmö, Sweden
2012
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Grants and Commissions Program,Miami
2007
3rd prize, Fair Play Award, Play Gallery for still and motion pictures,Berlin
Public Collections
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Usa
FRAC – Fonds Régional d´Art Contemporain, France
Guandong Museum, Guangzhou, China
INHOTIM – Instituto de Arte Contemporânea, Brumadinho, Minas
Gerais
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Tate Modern, London, UK
Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2010:
Related Posts
- In Italy, 'Knife in the flesh' brings up political complexity from Brazil
- “BRAZIL. Knife in the flesh" brings 30 Brazilian artists to Milan
- Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj present works made in the last ten years
- Brazil in focus in the 37th edition of ARCOMadrid
- "Potência e Adversidade" explores Latin American art
- "Condemned to be modern" explores the relationship between architecture and politics
- FUSO videoart festival discusses past and present between Europe and the Americas
- "Minor history" guides new solo show by Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj
- Stories analysed and transformed by language in "As Told"
- "The Uncorrupted", a film by Tamar Guimarães at Museo Reina Sofia
