Silêncio! Exhibition at Galerie Vermelho Blends Tropicalism and Dictatorship Themes

Curated by Audrey Illouz, the group exhibition 'Silêncio!' at Galerie Vermelho in São Paulo (November 22, 2008 – January 17, 2009) juxtaposes tropicalism and Brazil's military dictatorship, exploring the relationship between primal scream and articulated language. The show focuses on physicality and the effects of speech gagged by totalitarianism, yet the works often produce noise rather than silence. Manon de Boers' video 'Resoneting Surfaces' (2005), a portrait of exiled psychoanalyst and curator Suely Rolnik, is notably absent despite its recent European institutional presence. De Boers is instead represented by 'Switch', featuring singer Alison Goldfrapp reading monologues in unfamiliar languages, highlighting the gap between signifier and signified. Mauricio Ianês' 'MND' (2008) is a mirrored cube recalling Donald Judd's minimalism, but visitors can enter and experience isolation amplified by deep bass sounds. Anne Durez's poetic film shows a man stubbornly reading a newspaper in a windy field, a metaphor for resistance. While individual works offer interesting perspectives, their grouping dilutes the curator's initial themes, though it opens fertile debates for future projects.