↳ Exhibitions

Adriano Amaral at Witte de With

March 21, 2020

Artist: Adriano Amaral

Exhibition title: new work

Curated by: Julia Mullié

Venue: Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Date: January 19 – April 19, 2020

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Witte de With

While the internet, prosthetics, solar panels, and touch screens can each be seen as ways of ‘upgrading’ human experience, a more elemental and subjective tendency seems to be gaining value again. Intuition, emotion, and imagination have become central tenets and, akin to the movement of Romanticism that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, Enlightenment’s emphasis on a purely rational outlook is being called into question. Adriano Amaral investigates the place of materiality by creating environments in which natural and synthetic elements merge, forming hybrids between technology and mysticism.

With an intuitive approach towards materials, combining industrial and discarded personal objects, Amaral creates site-sensitive installations that model the exhibition space as an encompassing experience. In his response to existing architectural qualities, Amaral both subverts and transforms them. Although discussions about the relationship between the human and the artificial have intensified in the last couple of years, this relationship is nothing new. Humans are, and always have been, reshaped by the objects and technologies they create. In his work, Amaral accentuates this relationship by combining found materials, trying to find “the most natural way to extend objects synthetically.” By doing so, he investigates and tests the social and environmental implications of materials and their interactions, suggesting a flow of energy and movement between them.

The exhibition is curated by guest curator Julia Mullié and is a collaboration with Pivô in São Paulo, where the exhibition will open 30 May 2020.