ERNESTO NETO

Ernesto neto is considered one of the absolute leaders of brazil’s contemporary art scene.

his inspiration comes partly from brazilian neo-concretism. at the end of the 1950s and

beginning of the 60s the movement’s best-known proponents, lygia clarc and hélio oiticica,

rejected modernism’s ideas of autonomous geometric abstraction. instead, they wanted to equate art with living organisms in a kind of organic architecture, and invite the viewer to be

an active participant. ernesto neto works with abstract installations

which often take up the entire exhibition space. his materials are gossamer-thin, light,

stretchable fabrics in nylon or cotton. like fine membranes fixed to the ceiling by long,

stretched threads his works hang down into the room and create shapes that are almost

organic. sometimes they are filled with scented spices and hang in tear-shaped forms like

gigantic mushrooms or huge stockings, sometimes he creates peculiar soft sculptures

which the visitor is allowed to feel through small openings in the surface. he also creates

spatial labyrinths which the visitor can enter and thereby experience the work and interact

with it. neto’s art is an experience which creates associations with the body and with something organic. he describes his works as an exploration and a representation of the body’s landscape from within. it is important to neto that the viewer should actively interact with and physically experience his work by feeling, smelling, and touching it.

for malmö konsthall neto will create a completely new work which he is calling

'the malmö experience'. the exhibition in malmö will provide an overview and synopsis

of neto’s previous works and contain a number of important works which will be presented in

a new way. in a huge 'organic labyrinth' of fabrics and shapes, which takes up the entire

exhibition space, the visitor can experience the work from both inside and outside.

the exhibition is based on the colours of the rainbow and the body labyrinth/organism

consists of a number of smaller spaces which together constitute the whole.