Opening the activities of its Annual Exhibitions Program, Pivô presents imannam, by Brazilian artists Ana Linnemann, Anna Maria Maiolino and Laura Lima, curated by Tania Rivera. Adding to the show, a graphic piece made by Colombian artist Bernardo Ortiz is displayed in the central column of Pivô’s reception.

imannam is an encounter of the three artists’ works in the space, motivated by its unusual architecture (a maze-like 1500m2 space roughly placed in a residual area of the iconic Copan building projected by modernist-architect Oscar Niemeyer). The exhibition features a combination of installations, objects, sound pieces and films intertwined in a way that is hard to tell when each artist’s work begins or ends. Laura Lima and Ana Linnemann took the architecture as a clear starting point, while Maiolino adapted a selection of iconic works specially for this situation.

The exhibition is first and foremost the result of the artists’ engagement with each other’s practices and the space during the process of installation – its title replicates this particular dynamic through a wordplay with the artists’ names. When entering Pivô’s main exhibition space, the audience will be greeted by a sound piece by Anna Maria Maiolino. Moving forward in the gallery, the viewer will be surprised by the piece Snail (2018), an abnormally low ceiling, by Laura Lima. Obliged to bend over, they will soon detect The Invisible Number 11 (2017), of Ana Linnemann, in which a support column makes a quick 360-degree turn per minute.

Among other pieces, Anna Maria Maiolino selected a series of short experimental videos to the exhibition – “between-documentaries” or “a-documentaries”, according to the artist’s definition. The videos, made between 1999 and 2010, are captured through a digital or cell phone camera, arranged alongside texts in prose poetry, excerpts of songs and various commentaries on art and the world. According to her, the selection is a direct response to her immediate surroundings and the current political situation of the world.

Finally, Laura Lima’s Incapacitated Room (2018) occupies the space’s central area. The work is a suspended wooden-made room turned into a fully-functioning office, where Pivô’s staff will work during the exhibition period. The visitors can follow the movements of its occupants by peeking into the gap that reveals their ankles moving around the platform. By displacing the institution’s office, as well as playing with its spatial proportions, Lima radically contributes to the complete subversion of Pivô’s general environment.

imannan is above all a free exercise of coexistence between these established artists and the curator in a specific space and time. By negotiating their methods, sharing affections and ideas, the artists open-up to new possibilities of engagement with the space and their own works, thus, inviting the public to stop for a minute and acknowledge their own physical presence while walking around this unsettling arrangement of works proposed by the trio.

About the exhibition programme:

The Annual Exhibition Programme promotes the work of artists in mid-career stage and of different nationalities, offering visitors a comprehensive overview of recent contemporary production both local and international, while critically reflecting on a diverse range of artistic interests and cultures.

About the artists:

Ana Linnemann (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil, 1956) has a PhD in Visual Languages ​​from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Her works have already been exhibited in several galleries and institutions such as the Centro Cultural Maria Antonia (São Paulo), Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Oslo Kunstforening (Oslo), Museo del Barrio (New York), MALBA (Buenos Aires) and the Imperial Museum of Petropolis. Currently lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.

Anna Maria Maiolino (Scaela – Italy, 1942) is an Italian-Brazilian artist who lives and works in São Paulo. In 1989, she received from the Association of Art Critics the Mario Pedrosa Award for best show of the year. In 2012, she received the 1st Mercedes-Benz MASP Award for Visual Arts for the collection of her work. Maiolino’s works have already been exhibited in the 24^th and 29^th São Paulo Art Biennal, 14^th Lyon Biennal and Documenta 13, in Kassel. In 2017, Maiolino had her first US restrospective in MOCA Los Angeles.

Laura Lima (Governador Valadares – Brazil, 1971) is an artist born in Minas Gerais and based in Rio de Janeiro. In 2006, graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Laura has already participated in many institutional shows such as the 24th and 27th São Paulo Biennial, 2nd and 3rd Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre), Chapter Art Centre (Cardiff), Kunst-Werke (Berlin), Casa França-Brasil (Rio de Janeiro) among others. She is also, along with artists Ernesto Neto and Márcio Botner, founding partner of the art gallery A Gentil Carioca.

Tania Rivera (Brasilia – Brazil, 1969) is a curator, essayist, psychoanalyst and professor in the Department of Art and Post-graduate Contemporary Studies at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF). Has a PhD in Psychology from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and Postdoc in Visual Languages ​​at the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Curated the exhibition “Pulsar” at MAM-Rio in 2013 and “Places of Delirium” at the Rio Art Museum in 2017.