Cildo Meireles' 'Entrevendo' at Sesc Pompeia Challenges Senses with 150 Works

The exhibition 'Entrevendo' at Sesc Pompeia in São Paulo presents around 150 works by Cildo Meireles, curated by Júlia Rebouças and Diego Matos. Occupying spaces designed by Lina Bo Bardi, the show explores paradoxes, ambiguities, and sensory contradictions central to the artist's practice. A key installation, also titled 'Entrevendo' from 1970, invites visitors to place sweet and salty ice stones in their mouths and walk towards a warm air source, challenging vision as the primary artistic sense. Other notable works include 'Espelho Cego' (1970), 'Descala' (2003), and the 'Blindhotland' series, which creates cognitive confusion through balls of identical appearance but differing weights. Meireles discusses the 'character of seduction' in visual arts and his resistance to 'pamphlet art,' while highlighting the political concerns in pieces like 'Missão/Missões (Como Construir Catedrais)' (1987), which critiques colonial violence. The exhibition draws parallels between historical and contemporary political repression, referencing the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and recent events. His 'Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos' series, which began in 1970, stamps banknotes with questions like 'Quem matou Herzog?' and, more recently, with the face of Marielle Franco. The show runs until February 2, with free admission, attracting a diverse public at Sesc Pompeia. This is the artist's first major Brazilian exhibition since 2000.