178 - 07|07|11
6th Curitiba Biennial
Beyond the Crisis
Curated by Alfons Hug and
Ticio Escobar
18 Sept. - 20 Nov. 2011
Curitiba, Brazil
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Installation and video in situ
Narrator: Joao Vasco Paiva
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LIGHT IN PINHEIRO - The Overlooking Tree
Gutierrez + Portefaix
Project Supported by the Arts Development Fund of Home Affairs Bureau (Hong Kong)
Suddenly after…
This is the story of a pine tree, a Pinheiro
From its original fruit arose the city of Curitiba
Our Lady of the Light distorted into an ideal community
Now that the seashells are far away
The original inhabitant is marginalized
A distance has been created in the name of evolution
The tree is glowing at the periphery of the urbanity
Its illumination works for the pine rehabilitation
Reducing the distance between nature and architecture
Perforating the matted growth of the virgin forest
His eyes hypnotized by the sun, the exposed pine is luminous
The Pinheiro offers a new way to gaze at the warm star
Standing motionless, attached around the central pole
The top branches shaped into a form of a symmetrical crown
Each of these tiny leaves is moving freely in the air
While the addition of trunks does not make a wood
The tree remains the essence of the forest
The living organism is now flashing his original complexity
At dawn, surrounded by a corset of fire
The illumination suggests an interplay; a battle of giants
Light to light, eye-to-eye, facing the sun
Artificial yellow rays flood the night
The eye echoes the tree and the tree bounces back to the eye
The balance between nature and culture rediscovered
The overlooking eye on the overlooked tree is shifting
The giant pine holds the memory of the city
Metamorphosed by Oscar Niemeyer into a symbolic creation
Who noticed him before?
Absorbed by the authority of the architectural composition
Once the fool-wandering tree is now shimmering his original aura
The luminous pine occupies again the centre
The open sea and the immense delta of the Parana
All concentrated on the tree towards a new direction
All the eyes turned towards the same route, the tree facing the sun
A golden magnet attracting the surrounding energy
Out of the dark night, yellow as the only colour the blind can see
The Pinheiro is the sun of the night, an eye always opened
Enlighten for the benefit of all, proposing a new way of seeing
Rocketing up in the sky, nature cannot be stopped
Surrounded by the mountain of his native land
The eye follows the trajectory of a new equation
The power of the tree is carried far out looking forward
The pine tree is the subject of our illumination
A dialogue between art and the architect's creation
A provocation for the benefit of a new apparition
Le Corbusier's "eyes that cannot see"
The rational of the plan against the organic pattern of the tree
The mascaraed of the buffoon to alleviate the original trauma
The forest being aggressively substituted
From agriculture to production, the constant progression
Free of danger, the tamed nature finally domesticated
The fertile soil has been spoiled
The pine transformed into a simple log, ecocide in progress
Timber after timber, plank after plank, the tree agonises
Consumed by a constant fire, sap spread on the land
A compost to achieve the new needs, to nourish a new ground
Always performing the ritual of life
The natural refuge was overlooked for a while
Not anymore a place for nest and rest
The only remains are the religious demon to thirst their passion
Strolling in the woods, I saw the Pope in the form of a pepper grinder
Easy to remember, a walk away at the feet of the giant
Infinite from below therefore so tall from the eye
The stunning sunset and the artificial light
The eye wide opens on a promising rebirth
I saw the pine surrounded by a halo of fire
The sun at night and the cosmos on earth
So many of the stars we cannot see, but still
The power of the eye combined with our imagination
The magnificent Pinheiro is standing here and now
Lighten like a star engaged in a forceful dialogue
Interplay between nature and architecture finally reunited
Now I remember…
