Laura Lima: The Naked Magician

When Brazilian artist Laura Lima (b.1971, Minas Gerais) presents her first-ever solo exhibition in Denmark this summer, she will do so by staging a huge, workshop-like installation in which a naked magician moves in.Flea market finds, textiles, instruments, books, bric-a-brac and bits and bobs from near and far will make up the large, immersive piece created by Laura Lima for the x-rummet venue at the SMK. The teeming mass of accumulated objects and materials will form a kind of chaotic workshop as well as more domestic spaces such as a kitchen and bedroom. Visitors are free to roam and explore this strange universe.

Inside the workshop, visitors might bump into “The Naked Magician” pottering about, constantly creating new objects and making changes to the many materials found there. Wearing a suit with the arms cut off, the magician will add an element of unpredictability to the exhibition.Since the mid nineties, Laura Lima constructs situations by placing the bodies of living things (humans, animals and plants) in unexpected relations with objects and spaces, challenging the accepted meaning of words and concepts and even questioning categories such as “performance” or “installation”.

In “The Naked Magician” she continues to suspend the expectations we hold of the world around us and of how our actions and behaviour affect others and our shared everyday existence. The Naked Magician is also about how art and the creative process can be like an alchemist’s workshop, creating something out of virtually nothing.