FOLHEAR – TO LEAF THROUGH
Ronaldo Barbosa
Curator

Felipe Barbosa and Rosana Ricalde are an artist couple from Rio de Janeiro who create projects in partnership since 2000, when they received the Prêmio Interferências Urbanas grant for their Muro de Sabão project in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. Since then, they have transcended their individual careers and partnered in experimenting with their ideas in the fields of public and urban art, as with their work Hospitalidade, which questions notions of belonging and identity building in societies forged amidst antagonic relationships. This work was carried out as part of the InSite 05 project (2003-2005) at the border between Tijuana, in Mexico, and San Diego, in the US.

Since college, where they met, they’ve built successful solo careers, taking part in biennials, group and solo shows in Brazil and abroad. Both graduated from the Rio de Janeiro School of Fine Arts. Her, in Printmaking in 1996 and, he, in Painting, in 2002.

Since 2019 they have lived and worked in Coimbra, Portugal. However, they maintain an active studio in the town of Rio das Ostras, state of Rio de Janeiro.

The exhibition Jardins Móveis was presented at the Museu Vale of Vila Velha (Espírito Santo) in 2017. Originally conceived in 2007, in Mexico City, it gave new meaning to elements found in the urban space as they became the materials for their art, grouping together the inflatable toys sold by street vendors to form large sculptures, taking viewers from fantasy to the symbolic.

Jardins Móveis was inspired by topiary, in Latin topiarus, the art of adorning gardens. An old pruning technique applied to trees and shrubs that shapes them into geometric, figurative or abstract forms, found in English, Italian, and, most frequently, French parks.

The idea of art in another context and space brings forth a reflection about site specific works in urban areas, where the artist presents his work while it dialogs with the territory and its surroundings.

This particular branch of contemporary art is frequently carried out in enclosed settings, but Jardins Móveis moved through other environments, such as the Olympic Museum of Lausanne, in Switzerland, in 2016, the Memorial Minas Gerais Vale, in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), in 2018, and the SESC Verão 2004 event, at Praia dos Cavaleiros beach in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro.

Presently, the Barbosa & Ricalde duo present a new, intricate work for the Museu Vale’s Extramuros project, taking it, simultaneously, to the Vale Botanical Park, in Vitória (Espírito Santo), and to the Vale Natural Reserve, in Linhares (Espírito Santo), one of the best preserved conservation areas in South America.

Through visits to the Park and the Reserve, research in their laboratories, collections, and library, the artists now present a new exhibition featuring large format sculptures. Produced by metalworkers, engineers, and specialized technicians, the work emerges from within the forest as a structure of iron and wires shaped into a calculated and thought-out mesh covered by hundreds of leaves and twigs. FOLHEAR, to cover with leaves, “the rains covered nature with leaves”, dives into the symbolic universe and that of imagination. The tail of a large beast appears vigorous, dressed in leafage that was manually and carefully laid out in a process of intuitive choices, in which artistic sensitivity trumps the techniques of construction. Named “vegetal skin” by Barbosa & Ricalde, this “being” of unknown origin and denomination comes as a huge surprise.

At the same time, it becomes part of the landscape as if it belonged to that place. Time’s presence is subjective and material in the leafage that was used and resignified. The artists breathe life, through texture and shape, into a new element of the landscape that possesses a life of its own, in the skin of this large and mysterious beast.

Ephemeral, organic art that mimics the environment and transforms over time. A creation on par with nature and its power. The materials, chosen by the duo’s attentive and unique point of view, give reason to welcome their open-air creations with awe and curiosity, always bringing a new outlook to elements of daily life. Art behaves in a playful and poetic manner, filled with meanings, causing us to reflect about the respect one should have for nature and its preservation, instigating the viewer to create their own fantasy and interpretation, and allowing for an interesting aesthetic experience.

ART AND NATURE, A POETIC OF THE TRANSITORY
Vale Cultural Institute

Transform, move, observe. These are verbs that drive us to tackle life. In the poetic and material meeting place between contemporary art and the diversity of ecosystems, one can discern the mutable beauty of the different worlds that surround us. This shift of the curious gaze towards the magical impermanence of things brings us Folhear. A Vale Museu endeavor, part of its Beyond Walls programming, the exhibition opens in Espírito Santo in partnership with the Vale Natural Reserve and the Vale Botanical Park, venues which will welcome the works.

The artist couple Felipe Barbosa and Rosana Ricalde, with curatorship by Ronaldo Barbosa, challenge themselves to use organic materials originating from the flora of these two important Atlantic Rainforest conservation sites to structure the creation of an immense fantastical being in the shape of a large sculptures. A being that coexists with time and nature, almost as a single entity, viscerally experiencing the transformations that make up life.

The show seeks to contribute to raising awareness of and appreciation for the environment through contemporary art, art-education, and environmental education. The connection between the spaces can be seen through different points of view, whether symbolic or concrete, bridging distances. This journey leads us through the roots that teach us the importance of preservation, harmony, and the infinite possibilities for connection.

Beyond the works, the Museu Vale’s educational programme relies on the presence of artist-educator Janaina Melo, who heads  the training of school teachers working in the Vitória metropolitan area, aiming to expand the perspectives around art inside the classroom. Janaina brings to this endeavor her experience in developing educational and cultural programmes in the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte); Instituto Inhotim (Brumadinho); Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR (Rio de Janeiro), where she was responsible for managing the Escola do Olhar; and the Fundação Municipal de Belo Horizonte, where she is currently the Director of Museums.

Alongside the exhibitions, as part of its Beyond Walls activities, Museu Vale proceeds with its educative and cultural actions through different partnerships – in public schools, squares, and cultural venues, besides diverse – and free of charge – events hosted by the Botanical Park and the Natural Reserve throughout the year.

These actions are linked to the Instituto Cultural Vale as, since 2020, it has carried out, articulated, or sponsored over 800 cultural initiatives in Brazil. In Espírito Santo, the Instituto also embraces culture in all its diversity: from the Programa Vale Música, that offers music classes for children and youngsters, to the Festa da Penha, which includes film, music, and dance festivals, audiovisual training, among other dozens of actions.

The initiatives are plural but share a single purpose: to create opportunities for the transformation of life through culture. Thus, it is our hope that, as each visitor experiences this exhibition, which will be open to the public from June to September of 2024, they find themselves immersed in the fantastical world of art, nature, and imagination.