Laura Lima: Balé Literal: MACBA Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain

Laura Lima (Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1971) presented the original version of Balé Literal for the first and only time in 2019 at the crossroads outside A Gentil Carioca gallery in Rio de Janeiro. It was a large installation made of objects, machinery, paintings and various artefacts that danced around the public space in a choreographic movement, a peripatetic dance of the absurd orchestrated by a rudimentary mechanism and driven by the energy of various people under the artist’s direction. Extremely simple, yet greatly effective, the installation appeared as a kind of living organism composed of all sorts of objects and people endlessly moving around in a perfect image of our changing times.

Four years after that experience, Balé Literal will be recreated in the Museum galleries in a large, walkable installation functioning non-stop. The objects and paintings hanging from threads in this new device will be produced especially for the occasion, while also acting as reminders of other works by the artist. An unusually choreographed retrospective exhibition in continuous movement.

Born in the rural region of Minas Gerais, as a teenager Lima moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she studied Philosophy and Fine Art, and where she still lives. Interested in social relations and the way in which human behaviour alters our perception of the everyday, her work often incorporates living organisms, whether animal or human, and actions that are performed for long periods of time, such as Balé Literal.

Installed for the first time in a museum, Laura Lima’s spectacular Balé Literal will be accompanied by a publication including essays by philosophers, writers and other artists. The book will be published after the exhibition’s opening, so it can incorporate a photographic record of the work installed at MACBA.

Photos by Silvia Poch