From June 15 to July 13, 2013, Galeria Vermelho is presenting the exhibition Zero Substantivo [Substantive Zero], by Odires Mlászho, one of Brazil’s representatives at this year’s 55th Venice Biennale.
 
Zero Substantivo combines new and never-before-shown works with other already known ones, presented last year at the 30th Bienal de São Paulo, or at the exhibition that Odires Mlászho [1960] is currently holding at the Brazil Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, running until this November, both curated by Venezuelan curator Luis Pérez-Oramas.
 
The exhibition Zero Substantivo represents the natural development of Odires Mlászho’s research since his last solo show at Vermelho, in 2010, Sopa Nômade. At that exhibition, the written word – one of the artist’s main foci of interest – was totally taken apart and reorganized in groups of letters, with the aim of destabilizing the linear logical reading and understanding of each phrase. This procedure, carried out by techniques such as collage, scarification and camouflage, was used in Sopa Nômade to represent the zero degree of language, a “babbling” lacking “clear semantic meaning,” in Mlászho’s words.
 
Zero Substantivo, which uses the same techniques, goes one step beyond the use of language in the matricial sense used in Sopa Nômade. In the new solo show, typography is used to convey semantic meanings which nonetheless lack proper nouns, as revealed by the title.
 
Riverrun (2013), consists of 14 parts that constitute a long phrase, using two different alphabets. To the straightforward and legible type used in one of these alphabets, Mlászho overlays a second one created with archaic and “tormenting” types, difficult to read and understand.
 
In Técnicas Avançadas para Travessias de Espelhos [Advanced Techniques for Mirror Crossings] (2013), the artist resorts to Letraset, a technique seen in some of his previous works, to create drawings on camouflaged backgrounds of images appropriated from magazines. In Plast White (2013), Mlászho scanned logotypes and created visual poems with them.
 
Pontos Cegos Móveis [Movable Blind Spots] (2013), a work created originally for the exhibition Dentro/Fora, in the Brazil Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, uses protection sleeves for 120-mm photographic film to present 16 different forms of the letter Y. Film protection covers were chosen for this artwork in light of the complexity of information printed on their surface, as well as the role of this material in the photographic process.
 
Zero Substantivo also features the works Ploter Palavra [Word Plotter] with a set of works from the Livros-Moles [Soft Books], Livros-Mochilas [Knapsack Books], and Partituras para Instrumentos Quebrados [Musical Scores for Broken Instruments] series.
 
Odires Mlászho – Selected solo shows: Sopa Nômade, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, 2010; Riverrunreverseflash [12º Cultura Inglesa Festival], Centro Brasileiro Britânico, São Paulo [2008]; O.D.I.R.E.S., Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo [2006]; Fotomontagens Paulistanas, Espaço Nossa Caixa, São Paulo [2004]; A Palidez Iluminada – Foto Arte - Museu de Arte de Brasília – Brasília [2003]. Selected group shows: DENTRO/FORA, 55ª Bienal de Veneza [Pavilhão Brasileiro], Giardini Castello, Veneza [2013]; XXX Bienal Internacional de São Paulo: A Iminência das Poéticas, São Paulo [2012]; Facetime, On Stellar Rays, Nova York [2012]; Geração 00, SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo [2011]; De viaje - Instituto Cervantes, Rio de Janeiro, Roma, Praga [2009]; Recortar e Colar - CRTL_C + CRTL_V, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo [2007]; Veracidade, Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM SP], São Paulo [2006].

Espera
Gisela Motta and Leandro Lima
 
Besides being the forerunner of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp was also a great chess player. In the solo show Espera, Gisela Motta (1976) and Leandro Lima (1976) present the 2013 work Contra Duchamp [Against Duchamp], a series that reenacts 21 chess games played by Duchamp in the beginning of the 20th century. The games are reproduced in animations made with LEDs, based on the game notation codes. Motta and Lima’s aim here is not to so much to make an exact representation of the games, but rather to reveal the player behind the great artist.
 
On benches displayed on the exhibition space an image of a seated person – revealed only by the projection of that person’s shadow on the floor – suggests tiredness and impatience. The installation Espera (2013), from which the exhibition gets its name, creates an interplay of shadows of two people, suggesting that it is impossible for them ever to meet.
 
In Captcha [2012] phrases taken from a dialogue of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick, were digitally distorted into the patterns of CAPTCHA: an acronym for the expression “Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.” The texts were produced by industrial embroidery machines programmed by a computer. In the film, the astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole find themselves at the mercy of their shipboard computer, which becomes increasingly human and begins to control their spacecraft.
 
In each video of the installation Plan Y [2008-2010], a battle tank searchs for its opponent moving on two distinct landscapes. They perform a constant search for its opponent but once they never meet the war seems to be meaningless.
 
Gisela Motta e Leandro Lima – Selected solo shows: SOPRO, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil [CCBB RJ], Rio de Janeiro [2012]; ANTI-HORÁRIO, Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo [2012]; Dial M for murder, Centro Cultural Britânico, São Paulo [2009]; Foreing Element, Hiap Project Room, Helsinque [2007]. Selected group shows: Bouillants #5, Vern-sur-Seiche, Bretagne [2013]; Nam June Paik Award 2012, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum [2012]; Território de Contato, SESC Pompéia, São Paulo [2012]; 8ª Bienal do Mercosul: Extranatureza, Porto Alegre [2011]; 17º Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporânea SESC_Videobrasil, Sesc Belenzinho, São Paulo [2011]; Höhenrausch 2: Bridges in the Sky, OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz [2011]; Constructing Views,New Museum, Nova York [2010]; 5ª Bienal VentoSul: Água Grande: Os Mapas Alterados Curitiba [2009]; 2º Prêmio CNI SESI Marcantônio Vilaça para as Artes Plásticas, Centro Cultural Dragão do Mar, Fortaleza; Museu de Arte Moderna [MAM RJ], Rio de Janeiro; Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba; Centro Cultural Palácio da Justiça, Manaus [2008].