{"id":2851,"date":"2022-01-24T20:08:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T20:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/?page_id=2851"},"modified":"2025-07-04T18:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:19:16","slug":"menor-carnaval","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/expo\/menor-carnaval\/","title":{"rendered":"O MENOR CARNAVAL DO MUNDO"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/span>
\n

O MENOR CARNAVAL DO MUNDO<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

2021 – SALVADOR, ROBERTO ALBAN GALERIA<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\n
VIEWS<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

In O menor carnaval do mundo<\/em>, Mour\u00e3o underlines his interest in different media and supports by showing recent works from different series of his productions, all of them developed in recent years. The set brings together new kinetic sculptures, paintings from his Janelas series, photographs and paintings from the SETADERUA series and videos such as Bang-Bang \u2013 work shown in April in his solo exhibition at Galeria Nara Roesler in New York city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The title of the exhibition alludes both to a narrative, affective dimension \u2013 a carnival celebrated with a small group of friends, within the pandemic period \u2013 and to a certain game of scale proposed by the artist based on the work that names the exhibition. A sculpture made in two different sizes, the homonymous work shows Mour\u00e3o\u2019s desire to experiment with small variations on the same theme or object, exploring the same idea in different but also complementary, unsuspected ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Gorgulho<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O menor carnaval do mundo and other reductions by Raul Mour\u00e3o<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Clarissa Diniz<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The passionate uproar of a carnival that took place in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, has ignited this exhibition. However, the impact of the few and intense days on Raul Mour\u00e3o\u2019s affective memory has not encouraged him to turn this exhibition into a space-time of nostalgia. Being the sculptor that he is, the carnival experience shared with a small group of friends, at home and almost clandestinely, captivated him by confirming \u2013 through friendship, solidarity and passion \u2013 one of the aesthetic-political principles of his work: reduction as power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His research has long been marked by investigations of scale. In an eternal game of ping pong, his works constantly ricochet, elaborating versions of themselves that vary in height, amplitude and materiality. With these operations, Mour\u00e3o seems to pursue the desire to occupy other perspectives, repositioning and shifting our points of view, calling us to participate in different movements, inhabiting different peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the sculpture\u2019s tradition of monumentalizing itself, turning the expansion of scales into one of its greatest fetishes, Raul\u2019s work also focuses on reduction as a strategy of perception and spatial occupation. Moving his works between the minimum and the maximum and back again points to the practice of reduction as a model of intelligibility. Reducing the world with its things and forces becomes a way of circumscribing it, assigning meaning to it, understanding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As shown to us by several of his previous works, such as the Boxer series sculptures (2003), in order to reduce, one can first fractionate. It is not by chance that, in spite of the almost libidinous attraction of the constructivist matrix to the grid, when Mour\u00e3o approaches it, he does so in order to direct us to that which escapes him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramifications of an infinity of works around the grid, his Janelas are a relevant statement about his interest in the grid, not as a form of totalitarian apprehension, but as an eminently reduced version of what surrounds us. In this set of markedly graphic works \u2013 nourished by everyday experimentation (with ordinary materials such as cardboard and E.V.A.) of the engraving tradition and, in particular, the monotype system -, the formal structure of the grid is the starting point for cutting out and highlighting precisely what does not fit in it, does not conform to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When reducing the experience of the world to small pieces of space-time with the intention of touching it in order to think about it, Raul curiously manages to exacerbate it. When looking through his Janelas, it is no longer possible to give in to the illusion of a total reality: the artist\u2019s philosophically reductionist operation ultimately multiplies what we see by breaking it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From his windows we do not look at a single landscape, but many: if we pay attention, we realize that we are not facing a landscape cut up by a grid, but hundreds of small images that, juxtaposed, warn us that apprehension attempts \u2013 from mathematical models to grids \u2013 are ultimately always spectral, positioned, partial, fictional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an example of the complex relationship between multiplicity and unity in his work. As an artist whose research engages with the sociohistorical dimensions of forms, in addition to possible thematic approaches, it is precisely within the scope of formal operations that Raul Mour\u00e3o politicizes his work. Reducing, fractioning and multiplying \u2013 recurring gestures in this exhibition, including the Bang bang video and The new Brazilian flag #11(dedicated to Baianasystem).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like the landscapes that we fictionalize in the artist\u2019s Janelas, the idea of ??\u201dWork\u201d is also the reduced approximation of many creative fractions. Perhaps because in the midst of a pandemic that distanced and isolated us, this exhibition reveals the artist\u2019s desire to project this operation over his own trajectory, bringing together, at Roberto Alban Galeria, reduced versions of different moments in his research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a programmatically amnesic country, perversely capable of burning its museums, forests and peoples, Raul\u2019s gesture insists on the political character of memory production. By presenting, at the beginning of the exhibition, a kind of \u201csummary\u201d of it \u2013 tiny versions of the works that, in the gallery space, are performed in other dimensions \u2013 and, at the end, again reducing them so that they fit in a box, it becomes evident that the artist is not only interested in the \u201caesthetic experience\u201d of the meeting of audiences with his works, but also in understanding the potentialities of their different forms of circulation and access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this same horizon, with a long trajectory of collective and collaborative actions (with partnerships that span decades), Mour\u00e3o habitually turns his exhibitions into an opportunity for movements that go beyond the traditional narcissism of an individual exhibition. Thus, while he invests in the production of memory and access to his work, he does not do it alone, but as an invitation to establish relationships with other artists, his interlocutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the case of the vibrant video Relixo, created in collaboration with Thiago Tambellini, whose initial motto of re-appropriating Raul\u2019s image archives becomes, at the same time, an exercise in memory and collectivization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relixo, like the carnival that inspired this exhibition, is not a nostalgic video. Although it brings together excerpts from the past decade of his life, his intoxicating montage does not sacralize the artist\u2019s archive, but, on the contrary, carnivalizes it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disobeying chronologies, ignoring geographic contextualizations, going without authorizations for the use of images and, above all, cultivating unsuspected approximations, mediated by rhythms and music that treat the images as moving bodies, Relixo performs the carnivalization that, in fact, acts on the entire exhibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we now live in a world that extrapolates us more than ever, given that it apprehends us into grids and distances, it seems that, by inviting us to participate in Menor carnaval do mundo, Raul Mour\u00e3o is whispering to us about the transforming force of that which, reduced, can face the giants without calling their attention to what is happening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Clarissa Diniz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Curator, researcher, art critic. Her research delves in Contemporary Art, questioning and expanding into matters of critics, curatorship, circulation and what Brazilian Art is about. Social issues are a recurring theme in her productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Show more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Em O menor carnaval do mundo, Mour\u00e3o refor\u00e7a este interesse por m\u00eddias e suportes diversos ao apresentar obras recentes de diferentes s\u00e9ries de sua produ\u00e7\u00e3o, todas realizadas nestes \u00faltimos anos. O conjunto re\u00fane desde novas esculturas cin\u00e9ticas \u00e0 pinturas de sua s\u00e9rie Janelas, de fotografias e pinturas da s\u00e9rie SETADERUA \u00e0 v\u00eddeos como Bang-Bang \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":302,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2851","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"trp-custom-language-flag":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Raul Mour\u00e3o","author_link":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/author\/raulview\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Em O menor carnaval do mundo, Mour\u00e3o refor\u00e7a este interesse por m\u00eddias e suportes diversos ao apresentar obras recentes de diferentes s\u00e9ries de sua produ\u00e7\u00e3o, todas realizadas nestes \u00faltimos anos. O conjunto re\u00fane desde novas esculturas cin\u00e9ticas \u00e0 pinturas de sua s\u00e9rie Janelas, de fotografias e pinturas da s\u00e9rie SETADERUA \u00e0 v\u00eddeos como Bang-Bang \u2013…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2851\/revisions\/3907"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raulmourao.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}