Ruby City announces the co-commission and acquisition of Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, Isaac Julien’s iconic tribute to the late visionary architect Lina Bo Bardi.
From left to right: Isaac Julien, Still image from Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, 2019 Nine-screen installation, Super High Definition (4K), Colour, 9.1 Surround Sound, 39 min 08 sec © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice; Isaac Julien, Tecnologia pré-histórica / Prehistoric Technology (Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement), 2019 Endura Ultra photograph facemounted, 180 x 240 x 7.5 cm © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. Isaac Julien, O que é um museu? / What is a Museum? (Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement), 2019 Endura Ultra photograph face-mounted, 180 x 240 x 7.5 cm © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice.
San Antonio, TX (June 6, 2019) – Ruby City is pleased to announce the co-commission and acquisition of Isaac Julien’s multi-screen installation, Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement as the newest addition the Linda Pace Foundation collection. The work receives its world premiere at Victoria Miro in London tonight, and is on view until 27 July. The film, which intimately chronicles the life and legacy of the acclaimed Brazilian architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi offers a glimpse into some of her most celebrated works. Reminiscing on such breakthrough buildings as the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), SESC Pompeia and Teatro Oficina, A Marvelous Entanglement, gives viewers the opportunity to experience Bo Bardi’s architecture through a contemporary lens.
Born in 1914, Bo Bardi is regarded today as one of the most influential figures in Brazilian Modernist architecture. Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement is a celebration of her creative vision, starring Brazilian actresses Fernanda Montenegro and her daughter Fernanda Torres, both of whom reenact scenes throughout the course of Bo Bardi’s life. Largely informed by anecdotal stories, the installation showcases seven of the architect’s buildings, at each of which Julien stages a performance or intervention celebrating the historical influence of that particular work. By visiting a selection of her landmark projects, Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement illuminates the architect’s groundbreaking vision and unbound creativity.
Bo Bardi also wrote extensively on the social and cultural potential of design and architecture, which Julien brings to life through excerpts recited by Montenegro and Torres. Key to her design process was the notion that architecture has the potential to gather large groups together, and much of this ethos can be seen in her public spaces which encouraged social interaction and collaboration. Julien juxtaposes these ideas with the more minute details of her design vision, drawing attention to key structural elements, such as Bo Bardi’s iconic winding staircases, crystal easels and framing windows.
Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement joins the permanent collection of the Linda Pace Foundation, which today preserves the largest collection of Julien’s work. In her 2003 book, Dreaming Red, Pace described her experience of first meeting Julien during his Artpace residency, saying that “I took great pleasure in his ideas, his British wit, his view of the world and his sweet disposition. I wanted to add not only The Long Road to Mazatlan to my collection, but all of Isaac’s work. This was a first for me. I believe that what Isaac calls his “painterly” descriptions of the human experience make him one of the most interesting artists I’ve known.”
About Isaac Julien
Filmmaker and installation artist, Isaac Julien CBE RA, was born in 1960 in London, where he currently lives and works. Julien is also taking up a Professorial position in the Arts Division at the University of California Santa Cruz. His multi-screen film installations and photographs incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. Looking for Langston garnered Julien a cult following while his 1991 debut feature Young Soul Rebels won the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, Julien was the recipient of the James Robert Brudner ‘83 Memorial Prize and Lecture at Yale University (2016). Most recently he received the Charles Wollaston Award (2017), for most distinguished work at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and in 2018 he was made a Royal Academician (RA). He was awarded the title Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2017.
Julien’s solo exhibitions and presentations include Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town (2017); Platform-L Contemporary Art Centre, Seoul (2017); The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2017); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016); MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2016); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City (2016); De Pont Museum, Netherlands (2015); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2013); The Bass Museum, Miami (2010); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2009); Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2005); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005) and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2005). His latest work, Stones Against Diamonds, was shown in 2015 as part of the Rolls-Royce Art Programme at the Venice Biennale, at Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach.
