Porto, Portugal, 1945
Artur Barrio and Physics as Art – Guanabara Bay, 2018-2024
water, glass, charcoal, steel wires, diving weight, depth gauge, aluminum sphere, steel clips, stone collected at a 30 meter-depth nearby Rasa Island, electric cables, filters, foam board, wooden structure, 2 videos of 30’ made by the artist while diving in the Marina da Glória, in Guanabara Bay.
Collection of the artist
Artur Barrio and Physics as Art is an experimental exercise on the properties of water and at the same time a reflection on our surroundings, on the processes of degradation which it is subject to, whether intentional or by omission. The installation is based on the continuous experience of being in the water and living in the sea. It includes images and objects that refer to the reality of Guanabara Bay and reconstructs part of its flows, which may seem abstract at first, but ultimately show possibilities for regeneration.
The installation continues Barrio’s seven-decade long work on systems and processes, with attention for the violence in its structures and our ability or inability to assign meanings to them.