Luiz Roque: Estufa

Roque’s practice inhabits a space between expanded cinema, visual art, and critical theory.

– Luiz Roque, White Year, Video still, 2013. Performer: Glamour Garcia; Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo/Brussels/Paris/New York

Estufa is the first mid-career survey of the artist Luiz Roque (b. 1979, BR). Roque’s practice inhabits a space between expanded cinema, visual art, and critical theory. His artistic methodology fuses an interest in the legacies of modernism, pop culture, queer (bio-)politics, and science fiction. This anachronistic approach culminates in timeless montages and environments while often disclosing the urgency of pressing socio-political issues of specific communities and subcultures. His open-ended, short videos are speculative, leaving the viewer wondering about the array of possibilities within alternative realities. The past, present, and future coalesce in each video, resulting in captivating trans-temporal amalgams.

Roque’s sculptural video installations explore a fine line between form, color, and content, with filming techniques and methods of screening and presentation reinforcing the subject matter. This expanded methodology towards the medium of video seamlessly extends to the architectural spaces in which his work is presented. Roque pushes for a thoughtful exchange between architecture and artwork, and, yet, they remain singular, their respective boundaries never dissolving entirely.

Luiz Roque at KW Institute for Contemporary Art

 

Estufa is Portuguese for greenhouse. The exhibition takes its title from an eponymous artwork that Roque created with the artist Letícia Ramos in 2004. A large greenhouse filled with tropical plants and flowers is both the subject and setting of the video. This is the earliest work featured in the show, framing an exhibition that looks back on exactly 20 years of Roque’s artistic experimentation, production, development, growth, and (con-)fused temporalities. The exhibition is accompanied by the artist’s first monograph.

Curator: Léon Kruijswijk

Curatorial Assistant: Lara Scherrieble

Runtime: Sat, 06/07/2024 to Sun, 20/10/2024

Takes place here:

• KW - Institute for Contemporary Art