25
A Thousand Degrees
GROUP | SESC Campinas | Campinas, Brazil
Third World: The Bottom DimensionSOLO | BOZAR, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles | Brussels, Belgium
24
How Do I Get There?SOLO | MIRE Public Art Program | Geneva, Switzerland
38th Panorama of Brazilian Art:
A Thousand Degrees
GROUP | Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo | São Paulo, Brazil
Black Ancient Futures
GROUP | MAAT | Lisbon, Portugal
Terceiro Mundo: A Dimensão Descoberta
SOLO | Pinacoteca de São Paulo | São Paulo, Brazil
CIRCA PRIZE: Class Of 2024
GROUP | CIRCA | London, United Kingdom
Toy Section
GROUP | Hangar Y | Meudon, France
Continuity Flaws: Rumors Of A Leak SOLO | TONO Festival, Laboratorio Arte Alameda | Mexico City, Mexico
23
SOLO | Serpentine Galleries | London, United Kingdom
Continuity Flaws: The LoopholeSOLO | Outernet Arts, Outernet London | London, United Kingdom
22
OMOIYARI: KEIKEN X GABRIEL MASSANDUO | The Photographers' Gallery | London, United Kingdom
A Thousand
Degrees
Initiated in 1969, the Panorama of Brazilian Art series marked a milestone in the history of exhibitions in Brazil, and its origin coincides with the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) at its headquarters, located in the Ibirapuera Park. In its 38th edition, the curatorship is signed by Germano Dushá, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Ariana Nuala, and under the title "Mil Graus" (A Thousand Degrees), it critically analyzes the reality of the country.
The curatorial proposal for the 38th Panorama of Brazilian Art aims to critically elaborate on Brazil's current reality under the notion of "heat-limit"—a concept that alludes to a temperature at which everything melts, dissolves, and transforms. The project seeks to outline a multidimensional horizon of contemporary Brazilian artistic production, establishing points of contact and contrast among various research and practices that, in common, share a high energetic intensity.
The curatorial research was guided by five thematic axes: General Ecology, Indigenous Territories, Tropical Lead, Body-Equipment, and Trances and Crossings. These axes do not function as cores or segments of the exhibition but rather as guiding threads that provoke reflections and interpretations, tracing possible relationships between works from these perspectives.
In General Ecology, ecological notions and expanded environmental practices are highlighted, oriented by a vision of total interconnectedness. Indigenous Territories feature narratives and experiences of indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and other modes of life outside the uniformizing matrix of capital, capable of reflecting alternative views on the invention and current situation of Brazil. Tropical Lead, in turn, will provide critical readings that subvert imaginaries and representations of Brazil, questioning central aspects of national identity.
Body-Equipment is the line that seeks to highlight experimental interventions and reflections on the continuous bodily transmutation of beings and things, with their hybridisms and interrelations, while Trances and Crossings address transcendental knowledge, spiritual practices, and ecstatic experiences that channel vital mysteries.
For the traveling exhibition, works from 22 artists and collectives were selected, presenting research connected to ecological, historical, sociopolitical, technological, and spiritual issues, using both advanced technology and organic materials, such as clay.
Germano Dushá
Thiago de Paula Souza
Associate Curator
Ariana Nuala
Executive Production
Luciana Nemes
Ana Paula Pedroso Santana
Bianca Yokoyama
Elenice dos Santos Lourenço
Erika Hoffgen
Marcela Tokiwa Obata dos Santos
Paola da Silveira Araujo
Alberto Rheingantz
Assistance
Beatriz Sallowicz
Audio and Video Equipment
MAXI Áudio Luz e Imagem
Audiovisual Consultant and
Technical Support
Estúdio Preto e Branco
Execution of Exhibition Design
Secall Cenografia
Multichannel Video Installation, Video Performance, Digital Sculpting, vinyl, glass, foam, 07”56’, 04”11’, 04“25’, 05”25”, color, sound.
“Indecipherable beings inhabit vibrant landscapes. Dazzling lights, acid colors, and metallic tones compose ever-changing skies and grounds. In these surreal terrains—somewhat mundane and highly alien—everything seems to distort, melt, and recompose incessantly, emanating the potential of life forms in an extraordinary ecology.
With a unique aesthetic featuring fluid forms, an explosive palette, and strange creatures—digital life forms known as “actor-sculptures”—Gabriel Massan’s practice focuses on creating 3-D images and games, as well as installations and objects related to computer technologies. In his compositions, ideas take on peculiar shapes, bringing forth zooanthropomorphic figures—part human, part beast—integrated into liquefied landscapes with intricate, ultracolorful, and fiery textures. His creations are based on methods he refers to as “fictional archaeology,” combining artifact analysis, documents, and historical episodes with speculation and fabulation. Alongside this conceptual and theoretical foundation, the artist incorporates world-building techniques and storytelling in the digital realm. Through environments, dynamics, and narratives that transcend real facts, his works immerse the audience in fictional situations that recontextualize certain places, episodes, and objects, discussing their sociocultural implications and proposing critical perspectives on the past, present, and future. In this sense, his work offers (often interactive) experiences that deal with themes such as identity and emancipation within contexts of structural oppressions. Through an approach he terms “subversive alterity,” the artist asserts difference not as a basis for exclusion but as a key to accessing new understandings of the world’s structural issues. His visually synthesis, both captivating and ambiguous, work as devices to circumvent rigid preconceptions and dominant discourses, ingeniously bringing to light traditionally overlooked and marginalized perspectives.
At the 38th Panorama, Gabriel Massan presents a new development of his work Ball Of Terror (2024), drawing parallels between the escalating global tensions and violence, and the traumas of deadly brutality perpetuated by the “war on drugs” in the Rio-São Paulo axis. In this regard, the foundations of his work are informed by his experiences in Baixada Fluminense, where he was born and raised, and his experience as an immigrant since moving to Berlin, Germany, in 2020. Specifically developed for the exhibition, the multiperspective installation consists of projection screens, speakers, lights, and sculptural furniture. Its immersive nature reinforces cosmology and common concepts in the artist’s practice, providing a situation of sensory displacement and serving as a tool to challenge colonial paradigms and distorted conceptions of the so-called “Third World,” and underline the power of imagination to affirm alternative forms of life.”
by Gabriel Massan
Technical Direction and Animation
In collaboration with Carlos Minozzi
Environmental Art and Unreal Development
In collaboration with Mati Bratkowski
Unreal VFX
Liam Wolfe
Agazero
Pininga
SFX
Agazero