Carmela Gross

The second solo show by Carmela Gross at Galeria Vermelho, Um, Nenhum, Muitos [One, None, Many], is organized around four segments: Figurantes [Performers] (2016), 13 Passantes [13 Passers-by] [(2015/2016), Darlenes (2014) and Bando [Band] (2016).

The panel lit by LEDs, Figurantes (2016), by Carmela Gross, installed at the entrance of Galeria Vermelho, resembles so many other such panels usually found in bars, stores and gasoline stations, bearing advertisements. But here, instead of products and services, the panel presents an extraordinary procession of dubious figures. They are those listed by Marx in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852), as members of the Society of December 10, consisting of temporary workers, parvenus, ruined heirs, vagabonds and all sorts of shiftless people: pickpockets, ex-cons, swindlers, decadent ruffians and many others… The luminous redemption of this peculiar group of political activists, shown on the LED panel mounted by the artist, reactualizes other groups that came in the wake of that one, and points to so many more which circulate in the contemporary cities.