Érica Ferrari: De tudo aquilo que não nos Representa

After coming back from an artistic residency in Berlin, where Érica Ferrari (b. 1981, São Paulo, Brazil) studied the monuments of the city, she started a research on São Paulo’s monuments and their meanings as symbolic constructions. This study originated the exhibition De tudo aquilo que não nos Representa [On All of That Doesn’t Represent Us], at Emma Thomas.

In the show, the artist presents an installation of 7 meters tall made of cement, plaster, debris and other discarded materials. For creating the piece, that fuses a monument of the public space that surrounds it, she departed from the Obelisco da Memórica [Memory’s Obelisk], located in the Largo da Memória [Memory Plaza], in São Paulo, as, in the artist’s words, “it works as an empty mark, paying homage to its own existence. However, the public use of the space where it’s located is significant”. The piece proposes a reflection about that space, that should be a civic symbol, but works in other ways, be it as a sight seeing point, a permanence place for homeless people, or drug selling point. 

The exhibition also comprises three wall pieces made our of wood, debris and Formica. In one of them, several obelisks are disposed around an empty rectangular space. In other, two flags hang high outside an empty room. The show is completed by a video recorded between São Paulo and Berlin that reveals the dynamics tourists, walkers and residents keep with the symbols that mark their public spaces.