Fatma Bucak on Lygia Pape’s Image of Rebirth
‘Fragments of improvized poetry came together and devoured one another’
‘Fragments of improvized poetry came together and devoured one another’
I do not remember the first time I came across Lygia Pape’s performance O Ovo (The Egg), but I certainly remember the image that it embedded in my mind: that of a fragile white box (the egg) and a woman tearing through it, breaking out of geometry – an image of rebirth. What appeared to be a simple gesture or experiment contained a disruption, as if everything was beginning again, borne of an imperfection and an urgent need to break through. It was curious to see her opening up a new space and creating a simultaneous sense of emptiness and fullness. Fragments of improvized poetry came together and devoured one another.
Published in Frieze Masters, issue 7, 2018, with the title ‘Artist's Artists’.
