Cinthia Marcelle: Trilogy

There is, in a certain poetic practice, the perception that the language used in daily life is a worn-out language: drained by repetitious everyday chores, words supposedly are only capable of hazy enunciations that fall short of conveying our experience in the world or building a gleaming verse that might enlighten it, even if for a fleeting moment. Therefore, the importance and the strength of poetry presumably resides in restoring the vitality of words to remove the thick fog that covers the objects of the world and enable them to be seen again, as if it were the first time.

All told, the videos that comprise Cinthia Marcell’s Trilogy (Trilogia) work with that same perception. It’s as if, through familiar places and objects – a truck, a backhoe, an intersection –, these pieces set out to twist our view of the world ever-so-slightly so as to restore its freshness and potency. The static wide shot in the videos organizes the space, providing the necessary distance for us to be able to see nothing but the landscape where the choreographies of men and machines unfold.

Featuring a close connection with performance, the videos in Trilogy explore an idea of origin, of time and of language as central issues. Whereas Fonte 193 (2007) and 475 Volver (2009) problematize a cyclical experience of time through solitary, recurring actions to no practical purpose, in Cruzada (2010) – which is part of the Videobrasil Collection –, time is also experienced through musical language, which guides the video’s narrative. The confrontation-turned-meeting of four groups of musicians suggests the emergence of a new piece of music – a new language – which unfolds and refines the video’s poetic operation.

Shown for the first time in Brazil, Cinthia Marcelle’s Trilogy is featured here in large format, at once restoring the panoramic quality of the videos and rendering visible the subtle reverberations between them. Thus, Galpão VB reaffirms its status as a venue for experimentation and the screening of key contemporary Brazilian artworks.