Born in São Paulo, where she lives and works, artist Ana Mazzel brings the universe of theatre and literature to her practice. Her works are like pieces and fragments of myths, lives and fiction. At other times, her works embody different situations based on observation and staging that come to life through installations, sculptures, drawings, photographs and performances. Theatrical elements are recurring themes in her practice. Mazzei sees the theatre as a field of real experience where you never know what will come next. Since the beginning of her career, Mazzei has explored a widely experimental practice in which she appropriates different materials such as cement, wood, felt and cloth, connecting to the environments in which she works. The artist moves easily among the universes of painting, sculpture, videos and installations.
We recorded this [TV CHANNEL] at the Thinking Two Heads exhibition in Brussels. The show includes work by Ana Mazzei and Fabian Peake; both artists have established a poetic writing dialogue over the past few months, becoming familiar with the thoughts of one another.
In the artist’s words: “I would like to tell the story of the pine trees… The first thing that comes to mind is the smell, but not the real one, the fake one from a small piece of paper shaped like a pine tree. Many landscapes in western painting have pine trees. Maybe I’m still talking about narrative. Starting point: interest in floating ideas – pine trees and hypnosis. Itineraries of non-existent places – thought-places. Transient, multiple and uncertain paths that at certain times connect, relate and disconnect. Improbability and uncertainties marked by the loss of references. – You are in a deep sleep and you feel completely relaxed and comfortable. Stay in a relaxed state and, whatever happens, you will experience it in a sort of detached awareness. You are simultaneously the observer of yourself and your surroundings. You are living in the present situation. Time is running, time is running, time is running… Mixtures of notations, memories of fused and amalgamated spaces, juxtapositions of layers that generate pulsating reverberations. A common point where word and image meet and from which they start. In an attempt to narrate what he experienced, immersed in a language that speaks for crooked lines. That is, of a language that silences a possible timeline of time; that does not narrate consecutive events, in order of past, present and future, but narrates from the place originating from thought and poetry.”
Her recent solo exhibitions include: Drama O’Rama, Sesc Pompeia (São Paulo, 2019); Is-Montage!, Carlos/Ishikawa, (London, 2019); Antechamber, Green Art Gallery (Dubai, 2018); DRAMAFOBIA, Galeria Jaqueline Martins (São Paulo, 2017). Collective exhibitions include: El arte como experiencia plural, Bienal de Cuenca (Cuenca, 2018). Knife in the Flesh, group performance with Regina Parra, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (Milan, 2018); Hands, Spells and Papers, La Galerie Centre d’Art Contemporain (Noisy-le-Sec, 2018); I AM HE AS YOU ARE SHE AS YOU ARE ME, House of Egron (Berlin, 2018); Now is light, Galeria Municipal da Boavista (Lisbon, 2018); 20º Festival de Arte Contemporânea Videobrasil, Sesc Pompeia (São Paulo, 2017); 32nd São Paulo International Biennial, Incerteza Viva (São Paulo, 2016).
POSTED: @tropicalpapers_09.12.2021