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On the occasion of LOOP Fair, Galeria Nara Roesler is pleased to present Limbo (2011) by Brazilian artist Cao Guimarães. Cao Guimarães’ work derives from an expanded engagement with cinema, characterized by ample travelling, or roaming, through which the artist constructs a visual inventory of everyday life, a lexicon of moments of poetic banality. Limbo is a short film set in the Pampas—a southern region of South America, which encompasses parts of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina—characterized by vast, dry grasslands. In his work, Guimarães focuses on empty playgrounds in the region, capturing ghostly moments throughout the day where the children’s swings and other playing equipment  move on their own, pushed by an invisible presence. With this, the artist engages with notions of absence, isolation, and stagnation—not only characteristic of the region due to its arid, deserted, and seemingly boundless nature—but also as a form of reflection on the in-between, on the notion of endless stand by, and of suspension of time. This idea is further evoked through the title: in catholic religion the term designates a space of infinite wait for unbaptised children, who can neither attain heaven nor hell and thus, remain in between forever. In his own words, the artist describes his piece as a contemplation on: ‘A place out of place, a place in between. A hole in space and in time. A Playground for those who came before, and those who left early. An eternal windy Sunday.’ 

 

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