isaac julien lina bo bardi – a marvellous entanglement – photographs & collages,

Nara Roesler São Paulo is pleased to present Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement – Photographs & Collages, the third solo exhibition by British filmmaker and artist Sir Isaac Julien (b. 1960) at the gallery. The show will feature photographs and collages—many of them previously unseen—that stem from the film Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement (2019), which poetically explores the life, work, and legacy of the Italian-born Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992). Isaac Julien’s new collages – exhibited for the first time – use a singular choice of colours to allude to different poetic and ecological motifs in Lina Bo Bardi’s work. 

Simultaneously with the gallery exhibition, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, will present the nine-screen video installation in its new annex, the Pietro Maria Bardi building for the first time in Brazil. This way, the audience can delve deeper into complementary aspects of Julien’s work. Both in the film and in the photographs and collages, Bo Bardi is portrayed at different stages of her life by acclaimed Brazilian actresses Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter Fernanda Torres. 

The work travels through some of Lina Bo Bardi’s most iconic buildings, offering a meditation on her architectural legacy. The film is inspired by official histories and anecdotes about Bo Bardi’s life, where the actresses read texts adapted from her writings, immersing viewers in a narrative based on a quote by the architect: “Time is not linear, it is a marvellous entanglement where, at any moment, ends can be chosen and solutions invented, without beginning or end.” 

Lina arrived in Brazil after marrying Pietro Maria Bardi in the post-war period, where she encountered elements that profoundly shaped her professional practice and worldview, feeling compelled to apply the creative spirit of Brazilian popular cultures in her prolific and sophisticated production, which includes buildings, furniture, jewellery, and theatrical sets, as well as a powerful theoretical reflection.

The filming took place in seven locations designed by the architect: four in Salvador (Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Coaty Restaurant, Casa do Benin, and Teatro Gregório de Matos) and three in São Paulo (Museu de Arte de São Paulo [MASP], Sesc Pompeia, and Teatro Oficina). In the film, each of these places becomes a space for performances, interventions, reenactments, or reinventions of scenes that may have shaped the history and myths surrounding Lina Bo Bardi’s architecture.

The production also features dancers from the Balé Folclórico da Bahia, who perform a dance by choreographer Zebrinha in front of the iconic wooden staircase of the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia. Additionally, the Araká collective performs in the building that briefly housed the Coaty restaurant, located on Ladeira da Misericórdia, also in Salvador, and which will eventually host the headquarters of the cultural association Pivô in the city.

In April 2025, a book on this work will be published by Yale University Press as part of the celebration marking the launch of the new Yale Center for British Art building. In this publication, Julien combines elements of the video installation, works from the photographic series, and a rich selection of archival materials, offering a deeper understanding of Bo Bardi and her influence. The book also includes an essay by theorist Giuliana Bruno, an account of the project’s behind-the-scenes by curator and scholar Mark Nash, and a conversation between Julien and members of the Araká collective.

Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement nine-screen installation has been exhibited on several occasions worldwide, including at Victoria Miro in London, UK (2019); MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome, Italy (2021); Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA (2022); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA (2023); Yale Architecture Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (2023); and in 2023, the video installation was presented at Tate Britain in London, UK, as part of the retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist, Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me which later travelled to K21 Museum in Düsseldorf, Germany and Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Although this is the first time the nine-screen video installation A Marvellous Entanglement is being shown in Brazil, Isaac Julien has previously had several solo exhibitions in the country. More recently, in 2022, Looking for Langston was exhibited at the Instituto de Arte Contemporânea de Inhotim in Brumadinho; Ten Thousand Waves was presented at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC-Niterói) in 2016; and Playtime and Scopic Landscapes were both shown at Nara Roesler São Paulo in 2014 and 2012, respectively.