THE CURFEW SIRENS

The examination of gesture plays a central role in Matheus Rocha Pitta’s work. Over many years, he has amassed an extensive archive of news clippings organized by quotidian gestural expression and place of origin. With his “petrified” collages, Rocha Pitta constructs stories, memories, and scenarios that reflect and resist different forms of authoritarianism, misinformation, exploitation, and injustice.

For his show in Hamburg, The Curfew Sirens, Rocha Pitta has developed a group of eight new sculptures called Sirens. The show’s title is already a play on the multiple semantic levels involved in the works. The foundations represent gestures of closed mouths, eyes, and ears, opening up a multiplicity of reference points. In his works, Rocha Pitta purses the question of possibly short-circuiting the multi-level chain of power and language, the right of free speech, hate posting, and authoritarian control. Especially with its observations of how violence is increasingly being used to strengthen public discourse, the show searches for a moment of pause and balance.

More info: https://www.kunstverein.de/en/ausstellungen/aktuell/matheus-rocha-pitta

Picture: Matheus Rocha Pitta, The Curfew Sirens, installation view, Kunstverein in Hamburg, 2020, Photo: Fred Dott