During my trip to Brazil, I had the chance to visit INHOTIM, a fantastic botanic garden about one hour from Belo Horizonte.
INHOTIM was founded by business man Bernardo de Mello Pazin in 2002 and opened to the public in 2006.
This paradisaic plantation alone would make every journey worth the effort.
However, the lush gardens are just a rich setting for an exquisite collection of the most outstanding modern art: about 500 works by Brazilian and international artists alike (from about 30 different countries) are on display; the collection, however, consists of over 1.300 works pieces.
I'm introducing 15 of my favorite installations - and I do it in alphabetic order by the artists' names.
John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres: "Rodoviária de Brumadinho" - although I don't fancy the style of Ahearn's and Torres' mural, I still like the concept since it takes up the art of murals, which is very popular in Latin America, and the art of naive sculpting, which is very common among the Afro-Brazilian artists, and - last not least - it depicts scenes from Brumadinho where Inhotim is located, so it's a nice tribute.
Claudia Andujar: "Brincadeira" - from the artist's series on the Yanomami, a recently contacted population, threatened by the conquest of the Amazonas.
Neville d'Almeida and Hélio Oiticica: "Cosmococa 5 Hendrix-war" - a very psychedelic installation filling five rooms of the entire gallery. Different music and film and photo screenings can be enjoyed on varying lounging and sitting accommodations such as hammocks, beanbacks etc. There even is an illuminated swimmingpool at the visitors' disposal. If there wasn't so much great stuff to see, you could actually spend the entire day only at Galeria Cosmococa.
Edgar De Souza: "Sem Titulo" - very simple and very nice.
Victor Grippo: "La intimidad de la luz en St. Ives" This installation consists of six tables, plasters, molds, clay, water, tools and this text. Since it's located in a dark room, only illuminated by a thin ray of light coming from a very narrow crack in the wall, it was not possible to take a picture; and flash photography would totally destroy the enigmatic effect of this work.
Huan Zhang: "Gui Tuo Bei" - it's in the mix, and Huan's monumental stone sculpture adds another style to all the marvelous works.
Cristina Iglesias: "Vegetation Room Inhotim", artificial vegetation amidst the natural vegetation, formed into a maze.
William Kentridge: " I Am Not Me, the Horse Is Not Mine" - Video installation inspired by the short story The Nose by Nikolai Gogol . I particularly love how Kentridge adopted the Dadaist easthetics of the post revolution era.
Dominik Lang: "The Sleeping City". Although the artist's idea is a completely different one, I felt like walking through a three dimensional painting by Jean Miro
Jarbas Lopes: "Troca-Troca" - although there is a whole story behind this work, I already like the fact that Lopes took up the topic of the Beetle which has been manufactured in Brazil for decades.
Jorge Macchi: "Piscina" is a swimming pool that can actually be used by visitors. Its stairs are in alphabetic order like the tabs of a telephone book - and plastic letters are floating in the pool inspiring the visitors to play and create - although they ran out of some letters like e. g. the N...
Giuseppe Penone: "Elevazione" - certainly one of the many installations that are only possible at a place like Inhotim where there is enough space even for the largest pieces. Plus it's nice how the trees are lifting their fellow up - almost like cheer leading.
Tunga: "True Rouge" - a huge installation looking like an assembly of humongous hearts - because of the tall windows also very impressive seen for afar. Tunga's strong and controversial work was the greatest discovery for me during my visit to Inhomit.
Adriana Varejão: "Linda do Rosario", a tiled wall filled with guts. This installation is like the script for a horror movie about a butcher store where...well, keep on spinning the yarn for yourself.
Luis Zerbini: "High Definition". No guts, nor quirks, just nice, powerful paintings and collages by this artist from my favorite Brazilian city São Paulo.
