Luiz Roque: República
February 05 - March 27,2021
From the Visual Arts Center: "The Visual Arts Center (VAC) at The University of Texas at Austin presents Luiz Roque: República, a focused look at São Paulo-based artist Luiz Roque’s practice over the last five years. On view from Feb. 5 – March 27, 2021, República will be accompanied by a virtual conversation between Roque, Loïc Le Gall, Director of CAC Passerelle; and MacKenzie Stevens, Director of the VAC, on Feb. 18, 2021. The filmic vignettes in Luiz Roque: República transport viewers to far off places—from desert landscapes to lush, green urban spaces to darkened, subterranean dwellings—shifting between utopian dreamscapes and dystopian realities. Utilizing the visual language of the sci-fi thriller and documentary film, Roque’s works address notions of the abject, the human condition, and the increasing capitalization of our bodies. República (2020), the film from which the exhibition takes its title, centers on the discrimination experienced by immigrants, and specifically members of the LGBTQ+ community. The discomfort and disorientation described by the film’s main character, Marcinha do Corintho, is made manifest by a spiraling camera that creates a disorienting and dizzying effect. Urubu (2020)—a reverse video loop—is a metaphor for the loss of freedom that has punctuated our lives during the pandemic. The video features a bird in infinite flight, soaring between the concrete apartment blocks that are indicative of São Paulo’s architecture. Highlighting the social, geopolitical and environmental shifts that have become defining features of contemporary life, Roque’s work foregrounds issues of gender and identity, sensuality and desire, discrimination and oppression, freedom and loss. Laden with spectacular imagery, Roque’s films imagine futures defined by multiplicity, radicality, and liberation while speaking to a present mired by legacies of oppression and discrimination. Luiz Roque (b. 1979, Cachoeira do Sul, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. He has had solo exhibitions at Pivô, São Paulo (2020); CAC Passerelle, Brest (2020); New Museum, New York (2019); MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2018); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo and Brussels (2017); Tramway, Glasgow (2017); CCSP, São Paulo (2016) and the White Cubicle Toilet Gallery, London (2015); among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at the BWA Galleries of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw (2020), Maison Populaire, Paris (2020); MAM, São Paulo (2019); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito (2018); Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2018); 1st Riga Biennial (2018); A plus A, Venice (2018); Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (2018); Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre (2018); MASP, São Paulo (2017); the 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); MoMA PS1, New York (2016); DRAF, London (2015); Kunsthalle, Vienna (2014); 9th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2013); and Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2013); among others."
On View: February 05, 2021 | 1-5 pm
UT Visual Arts Center (VAC)
23rd and Trinity Streets
Austin, TX 78712
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