In his second solo show in Brazil, Colombian artist Nicolas Paris (b.1977) has created a series of ‘devices’ that function as starting points for making acquaintances. Spanning from large scale immersive installations and drawings to video and small sculptures, most of the works use geometrical patterns and grids to initiate pedagogical processes. According to Paris, the faculty of learning – rather than a criticism of formal educational systems – is what matters the most in his practice. All of Paris’s intriguing objects are, first and foremost, excuses to talk. On entering the gallery, viewers are invited to bend down and go inside suspended rectangular structures. Each one of these potential ‘classrooms for improvisation’ (freely translating from the Spanish title of the installation: Elementos de un salon de clase para la improvisación) are covered in bluish green egg boxes, like a homemade recording studio, and bear elements such as dyed sponges and carefully hung logs. There are no clear instructions on what to do. Instead of enforcing a curriculum, Paris opts for a strategy of mutual learning.
- Fernanda Brenner