Lucas Dupin's 'Rés do Chão' exhibition at Galeria Lume explores urban banality through performance and found objects

Lucas Dupin presents 'Rés do Chão' at Galeria Lume in São Paulo until July 28, featuring seven performances executed in Praça do Patriarca. The exhibition includes a video-performance where the artist lures pigeons with food before dispersing them with a firecracker, illustrating the duality of care and harm. Dupin, a Belo Horizonte native who has traveled extensively for art studies and residencies, won the 2nd Prêmio Energias da Arte from Instituto Tomie Ohtake and EDP. His works, developed over years without initial thematic grouping, converge around the concept of 'ground level,' inspired by sociologist Antônio Cândido's text 'A vida ao rés do chão' about the chronicle genre. Dupin transforms mundane elements like exploded firecracker drawings and newspaper elastic photographs, with 'Jardins Suspensos' cultivating intrusive plants between Portuguese stone sidewalks. He emphasizes process-driven creation, listening to what his works say, and finding intersections across time, using materials like 19th-century sidewalk remnants and watercolor-painted cigarette butts to highlight the importance of banal daily life in art.