Specters (Chair 17) is the name of the new work by multi-artist
Nuno Rumas . A large institutional installation, produced by the artist – one of the leading names in Brazilian contemporary art – will occupy the central hall of the Anita Schwartz Gallery. With
an eight-meter ceiling , Nuno Ramos will perform a
mechanical theatrical piece , lasting approximately 50 minutes, in a culminating moment of his approach to dramaturgy, present throughout his career.
The voices that bring the stage elements to life – a five-meter-high red curtain, a military horn and three chairs, chosen as characters – were taken and mixed from more than seven thousand audio fragments researched in public historical archives and on the internet. Among them are speeches by great actresses, journalists, ministers of the Supreme Federal Court, as well as intellectuals and leading figures of Brazilian culture. There is also the voice of a man who clears his throat, chokes and coughs, and audio fragments from modernist Brazil, from the 1950s and 1960s. Nuno Ramos says that the title refers to the play “Spectres” by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), “where the past, the hereditary, the inevitable, never cease to return”. “This work is a tribute to the theater, and especially to Fernanda Montenegro”, says the artist. “Her speech at the induction ceremony at the Brazilian Academy of Letters is one of the sources and inspirations for this work”. “Chair 17” is the chair occupied by Fernanda Montenegro at the ABL since March 2022.
In an exhaustive and meticulous work – “infernal”, observes Nuno Ramos – he has been busy creating this work for a year. To construct the characters’ speeches, the artist mixed more than seven thousand fragments of voices, selected from historical archives and the internet, in an extensive research. “It is a tribute to theater, a phantasmagoria. Dealing with pre-existing voices gave me greater freedom to create the text. They say what they want, and I try to make them say what I want, and from this struggle my text came out”, he explains.
The play lasts around 50 minutes, and the sessions will be continuous, with short breaks in between. A monitor will display the text, so that the audience can follow the speeches. On the second floor of the Anita Schwartz Art Gallery there will be five previously unpublished drawings by Nuno.
Service: Anita Schwartz Art Gallery, Rio Opening: November 14, 2023, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Until January 19, 2024 Free entry
