Luiz Roque: The Story of Origins — KUNSTVEREIN GARTENHAUS

*ZERO*, film still, 2019
Courtesy of the Artist and Mendes Wood DM São Paulo, Brussels, New York
Copyright of the Artist

Brazilian artist Luiz Roque’s production consists largely of short duration open-ended cinematic narratives, in which he places mysterious characters (either gender-fluid dancers, famous drag queens, animals, landmark modernist buildings or historical artworks) creating dreamlike and sci-fi atmospheres. Roque’s sets unfold through suspended time and are at once prehistoric and dystopic, familiar and odd. The exhibition The Story of Origins at KUNSTVEREIN GARTENHAUS collides films in Roque’s production that feature animals as main protagonists and agents. The films are presented through a series of display sculptures imagined as an immersive installation reinforcing questions about the body, its agency and the relationship to its surrounding environment. Merging classical cinematic techniques with a visionary eye, Roque’s work composes visually engaged allegories that explore themes such as as queer-bioethics, the cultural overstimulation of the 21st century, and the problematics of automation and artificial intelligence.

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Mousse Magazine
Esel Austria

Luiz Roque

Luiz Roque (1979, Cachoeira do Sul, Brazil) lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil. He has had solo exhibitions at PROA21, Buenos Aires (2022); VAC, Austin (2021); Pivô, São Paulo (2020); CAC Passerelle, Brest (2020); New Museum, New York (2019); MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (2018); Tramway, Glasgow (2017); amongst others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg (2023); 59th International Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022); Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo (2019); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito (2018); Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2018); 1st Riga Biennial, MASP, São Paulo (2017); the 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016); MoMA PS1, New York (2016); DRAF, London (2015); Kunsthalle, Vienna (2014); 9th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2013); and Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2013); amongst others.