Code can be defined as a combination of symbols or signs, which, in an established system, acquires a certain value, message or representation, in other words, a significance.
Throughout the history of mankind, codes have always been present, each of which in its own time, such as the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Since then, current events have developed from the simplest to the most complex types of codes, for various uses, such as Morse code, bar code, QR code, among others.
On the other hand, the development of technologies, as well as the emergence of new needs by contemporary society, have led to the diffusion of the virtual, be it space, person, action or information, becoming part of the daily lives of the majority of the world population. The massive intervention of new technologies has opened to a new challenge: to understand how much the virtual situates us more or less close to reality. The exhibition Códigos [Codes], therefore, proposes the reversal of real and virtual spaces.
Usually, the exhibition room, the real space, presents objects to be seen, appreciated. In this exhibition, however, the real space shows only QR codes, that is, symbols and their meanings. As for the objects to be featured, in this case the place, is moved to a virtual environment, where the only access is given through the QR codes.
About bar and QR codes
Bar code is the graphical representation of a numerical sequence used to identify a product. Both graphical and numerical representations have the same value. This set of numbers is unique, as the same combination cannot be applied to different products.
As for the QR (Quick Response) is a two-dimensional barcode that can have its meaning easily accessed through the camera of most mobile phones. Initially, it was used for cataloguing parts of vehicles during the production process and has now been used for various purposes, such as inventory management and stock control in industries and commerce, as well as marketing and communication campaigns in magazines and advertisements, registering detailed information of addresses and URLs. Nowadays, there are already free apps for mobile phones that help users to read these codes, such as QR Reader (IOS), QR Droid (Android), among others.
Alexandre Frangioni
Works of art have the power to blow our mind, opening the doors of our perception.
When poetry, film or a certain object of art captures our imagination and our soul, we are no longer the same person.
This exhibition poetically features aspects of three central subjects: spatial perception, time and memory. It proposes a new space, sometimes through light, sometimes through time. Not only chronological, but also the time that leads us directly to memory. Memory that can be related to a lifetime or to a single moment. The idea here is, but not only so, to open the pores, so to ventilate those three concepts: space, time and memory.
The artist João Carlos de Souza addresses these issues through his “constructed landscapes.” One of the most delicate questions of our time is that there are no more natural landscapes. Through the light sculpture Balançar [To swing], the artist reminds us of these spaces. It also plays with the interior setting of the exhibition space, highlighting it through a series of works built with fluorescent lights. Still, the magical eye of the Porta Cora Coralina [Cora Coralina door], the viewer is taken to another place.
At first glance, Alexandre Frangioni seams to present less poetic works. They propose discussions as of the values of contemporary societies, from the harsh monetary point of view, related to accumulation and transformation. Among other works, however, through a closer look, Cofres [Safes] discuss the real importance of what they are protecting by the reversal of its original function of guarding and hiding, reminding us, in a poetic and playful way, what really matters. Frangioni’s works situate us in a place between childhood and maturity, in the constant exercise of time and memory. Here, one can get the synthesis of his work poetics.
They are two artists moved by the will to investigate and to experience different ways of expression. They produce a singular art, recognizable within the different languages they explore. They are two artists showing paths ahead of their time.
Adriana Rede
Curator
This series of works deals with the relation of values.
The work was initially created when I received a series of old bills of Cruzeiro, Cruzados and Cruzados Novos (all former Brazilian currencies), which belonged to a friend who was an accumulator (not only of money, but of all type of materials, like newspapers, clothes, catalogues, pots…). At first, one of my concerns about the new generations was to understand the effects of past hyperinflation in Brazil. On the other hand, those who actually lived that problem seams to have forgotten about it and have no needs in maintaining alive this concern, so that can be learned by our current and the future generations.
It was thinking about this, that I have produced a set of works using the money bills and other materials related to money as raw materials.
The intention of the Valores [Values] series is to address monetary value and its ability to be transformed into material possessions. This happens when I use the bills as a support for the production of low value objects (such as a kite), or in the intervention (with the word NO) on the bill itself, in order to modify its value, or even adding ordinary objects (safes, price labellers) that are directly linked to the value of money itself.
Therefore, I propose to the observer a reflection on the possible relations between values, historical and contemporary, through the different types of currencies and the relations between the objects and materials presented in the works.