Seduções: Valeska Soares, Cildo Meireles, Ernesto Neto

Paulo Herkenhoff, Rodrigo Moura & Victor Zamudio-Taylor

Softcover | 23.8 x 2 x 28.5 cm | 200 pp

Hatje Cantz | 2008 | 9783775718844

Text in English and Spanish 

Seduções opens up the exciting world of contemporary Brazilian art. Featuring installations by Cildo Meireles, Ernesto Neto, and Valeska Soares, Seduções (Seductions) sheds light on the multifaceted character and subtle ambivalence of contemporary Brazilian art. The three works, whose materials and formal language could not be more diverse, nonetheless display a common interest in a sensitive dimension.

In Missão/Missões (How to Build Cathedrals), Meireles assembles 600,000 coins, 2,000 bones, and 800 communion wafers, all of which communicate multilayered symbolism. Neto’s Globiobabel nudelioname landmoonaia is a biomorphic world made of stretchable stocking fabric, which conveys warmth and comfort. In contrast, Soares’s Vanishing Point, with its fifteen steel tubs, quotes the domesticated nature of Baroque gardens.

Conversations with the artists, conducted by Hans-Michael Herzog, director of the Daros-Latinamerica Collection, provide Seduções with very personal insights into each work. Explanatory essays put the three installations from the Daros-Latinamerica Collection into a larger context and create informative cross-references.