LENORA DE BARROS' EXHIBITION, A MULTISENSORIAL EXPERIENCE
The Badischer Kunstverein presents the work of the Brazilian poet and artist in their first extensive solo exhibition in Germany; To See Aloud includes diverse facets of her artistic practice, ranging from early text works, videotext poems, publications and printed matter to photographs, objects, object poems and installations, all the way to her most recent performances and artworks in public spaces, including sound-based and collective activations.
De Barros (b. 1953, São Paulo) expands our understanding and experience of language by carrying the ‘Verbivocovisual’ approach into the 21st century. This is a neologism that was coined by James Joyce and later used in Concrete Poetry. The Brazilian adopts the term as a guiding principle of her artistic work and explores the interplay between the verbal, vocal and visual on multiple levels while subverting any hierarchy or restriction. “I literally chose to go out of the space of the page, to depart for space”, explained de Barros once.
The exhibition is therefore designed as a network of different thematic spaces (library, kaleidoscope, labyrinth, or radio station), which invite visitors to a multisensory, non-linear, and participatory experience that dissolves the boundaries between art and poetry.
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Lenora de Barros. No País da Língua Grande, Dai Carne aQuem Quer Carne, 1998/2006. Ink jet print on cotton paper, 107 x 85,8 cm. Photo: Carolina Godefroid
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2: Lenora de Barros. Thing of nothing, 1990. Analogue black-and-white photograph on baryte paper, mounted on aluminum, 60 x 40 cm. Photo: Bettina Mussatt
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Lenora de Barros. Fogo no Olho, 1994. Courtesy: the artista. Photo: Ciro Coelho
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Lenora de Barros.Thing initself, 1990. 9-part, analogue black-and-white photograph on baryte paper, mounted on aluminum, each 40 x 60 cm.Photos: Bettina Mussatti
To See Aloud shows a large number of works from the 1970s to the present day and includes such central works as Poema (Poem) from 1979 – photographed by Fabiana de Barros – which explores the poem as a love story between language and the tongue, or ONDE SE VÊ (Where you can see) from 1982 featuring visual poems taking the form of early video texts. The video texts will be reactivated for the first time using their original technique. Mínimo Som Mínimo (minimum sound) embodies an attempt to reach a primal sound through the repetition of a fragment, of a sound splinter and was realized in 1983 as a visual poem and later as a sound performance. Ping-Poema is the title of a series of works from the 1990s comprising object poems, sound installations, and photo performances, where the table tennis ball becomes a carrier and sonic interpreter of texts.
Lenora de Barros cultivates a special interest in the interplay between various languages, in particular of their verbal, visual and acoustic elements, which enrich one another and provoke playful yet radical and engaging reflections on the body, gender, and social issues. New forms of language emerge, generating a diverse universe of meanings.
Curated by Alex Balgiu and Anja Casser, To See Aloud is part of a series of exhibitions with female artists on concrete poetry.
To See Aloud February will be on display from February 28 till May 28, 2025 at Badischer Kunstverein, Waldstraße 3, 76133 Karlsruhe (Germany)
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