MATHEUS ROCHA PITTA 'FF' AT GALERIA VERMELHO IN SAO PAULO

Oratório [Oratory]
gabinete de televisão, cimento, recortes de jornal, lâmpada [television cabinet, cement, newspaper clips, lamp] 40 x 60 x 50 cm / 2010
Uma caverna é construída em um gabinete de tv, em suas paredes de cimento uma coleção de recortes jornais mostrando dinheiro apreendido pela policia é colada.
[A cave is built into a tv cabinet, in its cement walls a collection of newspaper clippings showing seized money by the police is pasted]


Fundos Reais [Real Funds]
7 monitores de segurança, 7 dvd playes, 7 videos ntsc, 6 min cada, mesa de madeira [7 security monitors, 7 dvd playes, 7 ntsc videos, 6
minutes each, wood table] 380 x 80 x 70 cm / 2008-2009
Cada uma das sete notas de Real tem seus detalhes (cuja soma confere valor à nota) filmados, e exibidos em um monitor de segurança.
[Each one of the seven Real bills has its details filmed (the very ones whose sum confers value to the bill) and showed in a security monitor.]


Exhibition View


Canal # 1 [Channel # 1]
Fotografia, [Photography] 90 x 90 cm / 2010
Seis fundos falsos são escupildos em um monitor de televisão, Cada fotografia é uma “fatia” ou um fundo falso dessa tv com dinheiro escondido.
[Six fake bottoms are sculpted in a tv monitor. Each photograph is a “slice” or a fake bottom of this television with hidden money.]


Canal # 3 [Channel # 3]
Fotografia, [Photography] 90 x 90 cm / 2010

Canal # 6 [Channel # 6]
Fotografia, [Photography] 90 x 90 cm / 2010




Fundo Falso # 1 (Fonte) [Fake Bottom # 1 (Fountain)]
[Digital Prints, styrofoam, adhesive tape, wood, cement, bricks, water] 520 x 700 x 80 cm / 2010
Uma parede da galeria é duplicada, formando um fundo falso, onde pilhas de dinheiro servem como escada para um poço do desejo.
[A gallery wall is duplicated, forming a fake bottom where piles of money serves as stairs to a wishing well.]


FF/MATHEUS ROCHA PITTA
In the solo show FF (portuguese abbreviation for fundo falso [false bottom] among other things), Matheus Rocha Pitta presents a series of new works result of his research on the relation among art, value and crime.

Since 2007, Rocha Pitta has been collecting images of objects and substances confiscated by the police in different crime scenes. By different procedures, the images of illegal goods are introduced into a new circulation dynamic. Therefore, the photographic document acts as a element of conversion among substance, image and the meanings they generate inside consumption society in our days.

On his first solo exhibition at Vermelho, the artist took money bills, main symbols of commodity, as object of seizure. The sculpture Oratório (Oratory) installed in the lobby of Vermelho suggests a prologue of the show. A TV set cabinet is turned into a sort of mini cave. Its cement walls depict images collected in newspapers of seized illegal money, reais and US dollars seizure in the scandal of Mensalão, in 2008.

The photograph series Canais (Channels) depict the same TV set. The photo enters here as a descriptive tool revealing each one of the six false bottoms carved on the monitor. Each single image of the series present the relation between the circulation of images in the media and a sub circulation of prohibited goods.

The video installation Fundos Reais (Real Funds), 2008-2009 takes the design of the seven different bills of Real (brazilian currency) as object of analysis. Seven monitors show 100 different images of details of the notes. Almost abstract this collection of images evoke senses beyond the regular significance money bills in our society.

Fake Bottom # 1 (fountain) is a false bottom created for the main hall of Vermelho. Behind the fake wall, a stair case which steps are filled with Real money bills leads to a fountain. On the top of the staircase the observer is invited to throw coins in exchange for a wish.

http://www.galeriavermelho.com.br