THE LIGHTNING-FILLED NIGHT: echoes of surrealism and other cosmologies
Why visit the echoes of surrealism today? Why approach alternative cosmologies to the Western paradigm now—in other words, different ways of organizing shared reality? Various recent diagnoses remind us that we live in a time marked by the dulling of imagination, the dilution of the corporeal dimension in our dealings with the world, the undermining of the realm of dreams, and the resistance to dialogue with differences.
In this context, dimensions such as eroticism, delirium, dreams, and alterity—all mobilized by the surrealist legacy and reimagined within what we call "other cosmologies"—gain central relevance. Curated by Luisa Duarte, the second group exhibition of Flexa spans a temporal arc beginning in the 1920s and extending to the present, bringing together artists whose works relate, in various ways, to these issues.
Contrary to a widespread understanding of surrealists, they were not so much interested in fabricating a fantastical parallel world as in establishing points of fracture in current reality, contributing to a sense of strangeness in the naturalness of all things. This movement, whose expression spreads from literature to visual arts, proposes critical ways of thinking about and experiencing reality, which is why their proposals still provide us with insights for understanding the present.
The exhibition shifts certain historical narratives that consider the impact of the surrealist movement in Brazil to be limited, highlighting how its poetic procedures continue to resonate in the country’s contemporary art. At the same time, it brings to light some differences between the historical context in which surrealism emerged and the current moment, observing the social and cultural mutations that have occurred since then.
The exhibition is divided into four sections. They are
Eroticism and Death, represented by artists such as Tunga, Waltercio Caldas, Ismael Nery, Maria Martins, Julia Gallo, Maria Lídia Magliani, and Flávio de Carvalho.
Universe of Dreams and Oneiric Activity, featuring names like Cícero Dias, Marc Chagall, and Rayana Rayo.
Zones of Delirium, showcasing works by Yayoi Kusama, Manuel Messias dos Santos, and Darcílio Lima.
Alterity and Other Cosmogonies, which puts into dialogue works by Chico da Silva, Maria Lira Marques, Claudia Andujar, Hélio Melo, and Jaider Esbell, among others.
The first part of the exhibition's title was extracted from the First Manifesto of Surrealism, published exactly 100 years ago by André Breton (1896-1966). The image of a night capable of harboring the day, contained in the fragment “the night of flashes,” underscores the importance of the transit between the logic of dreams and the logic of wakefulness as a means to transform our relationship with what has been conventionally called "reality." In this context, it proposes dialogues with recent efforts to elicit the emergence of narratives stemming from alternative cosmologies to the Western paradigm, as indicated in the exhibition's subtitle.
Artists
Alex Červený
Alvim Corrêa
Athos Bulcão
Carybé
Chico da Silva
Cícero Dias
Claudia Andujar
Darcílio Lima
Diambe
Flávio de Carvalho
Glauco Rodrigues
Hélio Melo
Ismael Nery
Jaider Esbell
Julia Gallo
Manuel Messias
Maria Lídia Magliani
Maria Lira Marques
Maria Martins
Nilda Neves
Paloma Bosquê
Pedro França
Rayana Rayo
Rebecca Sharp
Rodrigo Braga
Tarsila do Amaral
Tunga
Victor Brecheret
Waltercio Caldas
Yayoi Kusama
WORKS
Alex Cerveny
Carbono, 2024
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
41 x 27 cm [16 1/8 x 10 5/8 in]
Claudia Andujar
Floresta amazônica, Pará [Amazon Rainforest, Pará], da série [from the
series] Sonhos Yanomami [Yanomami Dreams], 1971/2015
impressão fotográfica sobre papel [photo prinKng on paper]
66 x 100 cm [26 x 39 3/8 in]
Paloma Bosquê
Fossil (Cisne) [Swan], 2024
fibra de algodão, gesso pedra, lã e Knta acrílica [coNon fiber, stone
plaster, wool and acrylic paint]
69 x 44 x 35 cm [27 1/8 x 17 3/8 x 13 3/4 in]
Rodrigo Braga
Ponto zero #11, 2019
impressão fine art sobre papel [fine art prinKng on paper]
80 x 120 cm [31 1/2 x 47 1/4 in]
Ed.: 5 + 2 P.A. [A.P.]
Victor Brecheret
Fauno, 1930’s
pedra francesa [French stone]
51 x 50 x 30 cm [20 1/8 x 19 3/4 x 11 3/4 in]
Athos Bulcão
A inundação de um sonho, 1952
pigmento mineral sobre papel [mineral pigment on paper]
27,3 x 24,3 cm [10 3/4 x 9 5/8 in]
Waltercio Caldas
Objeto parado [StaJonary object], 2017
aço inoxidável polido, resina e fio de algodão [polished stainless steel,
resin and coNon thread]
48 x 55 x 42 cm [18 7/8 x 21 5/8 x 16 1/2 in]
Carybé
Alexandrina e sua cidade, 1944
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
110 x 80 cm [43 1/4 x 31 1/2 in]
Cicero Dias
Sem título [Untitled], 1928
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
66,5 x 149 cm [26 1/8 x 58 5/8 in]
Diambe
Lua minguante, 2023
polychrome bronze
43 x 26 x 32 cm [16 7/8 x 10 1/4 x 12 5/8 in]
Francisco Domingos da Silva
Sem título [Untitled], 1972
guache sobre tela [gouache on canvas]
50,5 x 69 cm [19 7/8 x 27 1/8 in]
Hélio Melo
A transformação da seringueira I, 1989
nanquim e extrato de folhas sobre tecido [ink and leaves’ extract on fabric]
147 x 141 cm [57 7/8 x 55 1/2 in]
Hélio Melo
A vaca leiteira do seringueiro, 1981
nanquim e extrato de folhas sobre cartão [ink and leaves extract on paperboard]
18,5 x 25 cm [7 1/4 x 9 7/8 in]
Henrique Alvim Corrêa
Desejo sem limite, s.d. [n.d.]
nanquim, grafite, pastel e aquarela sobre papel [ink, graphite, chalk pastel and watercolor on paper]
30 x 22,5 cm [11 3/4 x 8 7/8 in]
Ismael Nery
Visão interna – Agonia, 1930’s
óleo sobre cartão sobre aglomerado de madeira [oil on paperboard on wood chipboard]
71 x 48 cm [28 x 18 7/8 in]
Jaider Esbell
O olho d’água e a guardiã, 2019
acrílica sobre tela [acrylic on canvas]
73 x 90 cm [28 3/4 x 35 3/8 in]
Julia Gallo
Crônico, 2017
carvão sobre tela [charcoal on canvas]
170 x 106 cm [66 7/8 x 41 3/4 in]
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity nets, 2014
acrílica sobre tela [acrylic on canvas]
97 x 130,3 cm [38 1/4 x 51 1/4 in]
Darcilio Lima
Sem título [Untitled], 1968
aquarela e nanquim sobre papel [watercolor and ink on paper]
20,5 x 15,3 cm [8 1/8 x 6 in]
Manuel Messias dos Santos
Cristo na Terra [Christ on Earth], 1968
xilogravura sobre papel [woodcut on paper]
90,5 x 48 cm [35 5/8 x 18 7/8 in]
Maria Lira Marques
Sem título [Untitled], 2021
pigmentos naturais sobre pedra [natural pigments on stone]
24,5 x 12 x 12 cm [9 5/8 x 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 in]
Pedro França
Sem título [Untitled], 2021
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
106 x 120 cm [41 3/4 x 47 1/4 in]
Rayana Rayo
O 9 é melhor que o 10, 2024
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
114 x 146 cm [44 7/8 x 57 1/2 in]
Glauco Rodrigues
O dia corta o escuro n° 4, da série [from the series] Adivinhações dos índios caxinauás, 1973
acrílica sobre tela colada em aglomerado [acrylic on canvas glued to chipboard]
55 x 46 cm [21 5/8 x 18 1/8 in]
Rebecca Sharp
Invention of Wheel Part II, 2024
óleo sobre tela [oil on canvas]
25,2 x 25,2 cm [9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in]
Tarsila do Amaral
Paisagem, 1929
grafite sobre papel [graphite on paper]
22 x 19 cm [8 5/8 x 7 1/2 in]
Tunga
Bell’s Fall, 1998
vidro fundido, esponja natural tingida, rede de poliamida, escova de cerda natural, feltro, madeira, bolas de sinuca, contas de cristal e bolas de cristal [glass paste, dyed natural sponge, polyamide net, natural bristle brush, felt, wood, billiard balls, crystal beads, crystal balls]
200 x 300 x 300 cm [78 3/4 x 118 1/8 x 118 1/8 in]
Tunga
Fraction of light, 2010
ferro, cordoalha de aço e resina [iron, steel wire and resin]
390 x 110 x 200 cm [153 1/2 x 43 1/4 x 78 3/4 in]
Tunga
Sem título [Untitled], s.d. [n.d.]
pastel seco sobre papel [dry chalk pastel on paper]