The Kiss on the Asphalt
FLEXA and Tropigalpão are pleased to present The Kiss on the Asphalt, a short-term exhibition organized in partnership and curated by Ulisses Carrilho.
Freely inspired by Nelson Rodrigues’ marginal drama, the exhibition evokes the city—the space of tragedy—as the ground of revelry. In the encounter between flesh and asphalt, these lips reveal an eroticism that disorients the order of the day: where desire spills over, norms are repositioned.
The Kiss on the Asphalt, by Nelson Rodrigues, emerges as a radical gesture, an act of love that, contrary to its sweet surface, is a subterranean blow to the moral order of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The public kiss between two men is not merely a symbol of affection, but a profound subversion of sexual normativity. The asphalt, this hard and cruel surface of the city, is stained by what cannot be contained: the repressed desire that seeps through the cracks of social conventions. In the clash between bodies and norms, the kiss is an act of resistance, a gesture of loving rebellion that tensions the moral fabric of the city and challenges the cisheteronormative regime.
If the kiss on the asphalt symbolizes a rupture with moral normativity, it can also be read as a political metaphor. The kiss is a gesture of transgression, but also of resistance: it challenges the established order, questions social norms, and exposes the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality. In this context, marginality becomes a space of potential transformation.
The exhibition brings together works by artists such as Allan Weber, Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato, Anísio O. Couto, Carlos Vergara, Heitor dos Prazeres, Hélio Oiticica, Ivens Machado, Matheus Chiaratti, Melissa de Oliveira, Miriam Inêz da Silva, Moacir Farias, Sérgio Richard, Ubi Bava, Val Souza, Vera Chaves Barcellos, Victor Arruda, and Yhuri Cruz.
WORKS
Carlos Vergara
Homem com rosto prateado, from the series Carnaval, 1972/1976
photographic print on paper
59 x 39 3/8 in
Val Souza
Estudo de Vênus, 2022
fine art print on paper
4 x 3 1/8 in (each)
Allan Weber
Untitled, 2024
motorbike seat
47 1/4 x 35 3/8 x 11 3/4 in
Hélio Oiticica
B 47 Bólide caixa 22 – Mergulho do corpo, 1967
water tank with black rubber lettering
18 1/2 x 21 5/8 x 21 5/8 in
Hélio Oiticica
Luis Guimarães veste próximo ao cais 42 New York, 1972
screenprint
18 1/2 x 12 1/4 in
Miriam Inez da Silva
Fla x Flu – Tarde de sol…, 1984
oil on pressed wood fiberboard
10 1/4 x 15 3/4 in
Victor Arruda
Figuras vegetais sobre a cidade ainda adormecida, 2022
acrylic on canvas
32 5/8 x 39 3/8 in
Miriam Inez da Silva
Untitled, 1984
oil on pressed wood fiberboard
11 3/8 x 24 in
Amadeo Luciano Lorenzato
Untitled, 1989
oil on pressed wood fiberboard
21 7/8 x 15 3/4 in
Heitor dos Prazeres
Briga de rua, 1966
oil on canvas
14 5/8 x 17 3/4 in
Melissa de Oliveira
No escurinho, 2024
photographic print on paper
31 1/2 x 47 1/4 in
Ubi Bava
Homenagem ao espectador, 1977
mirror and acrylic
30 3/4 x 30 3/4 in
Matheus Chiaratti
C. (Living Model), 2023
oil on canvas
11 3/4 x 7 7/8 in
Anísio Couto
Olho de espinho, 2022
oil on canvas
16 1/8 x 30 1/8 in
Moacir Farias
Untitled, n.d.
wax crayon on paper
17 3/4 x 13 in
Yhuri Cruz
Jongo & Adriano: Uma fotonovela, 2022
photographic print on Hahnemühle Photo Luster 260 gsm
43 1/4 x 28 3/4 x 1 5/8 in (each)
Sérgio Richard
Untitled, from the series Brazilian Homo, n.d.
photographic printing on paper
23 5/8 x 15 3/4 in
Vera Chaves Barcellos
On Ice, 1978/2023
photographic print on paper
27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in (each)
Yhuri Cruz
O convite, from the series Pretofagia, 2022
dry pastel on paper
25 5/8 x 35 3/8 in