Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi / A Marvellous Entanglement at Victoria Miro

‘Linear time is a western invention; time is not linear, it is a marvellous entanglement, where at any moment points can be chosen and solutions invented without beginning or end.’ – Lina Bo Bardi *

Having filmed on location in São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), SESC Pompéia and in the Teatro Oficina, Julien proposes an open-ended reflection on Lina Bo Bardi’s architecture and her approach to Brazilian culture. These three buildings, widely regarded as landmarks of Brazilian modernism, stand as representative of Lina Bo Bardi’s groundbreaking ideas. Travelling further north, the work also encounters Bo Bardi’s buildings in Salvador: the Museum of Modern Art, Bahia; the Coaty Restaurant and the Gergório de Matos theatre.

Julien has created a nine-screen film installation – part homage, part poetic journey – that orbits Bo Bardi’s life and work. It features artists, and personal acquaintances of Bo Bardi’s, such as actor, director, playwright and co-founder of São Paulo’s Teatro Oficina, José Celso Martinez Corrêa (known as Zé Celso).

About Isaac Julien

Born in 1960, Isaac Julien lives and works in London. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at institutional venues including ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2018), The Whitworth, Manchester (2018), The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2017), MAC Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2016), MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo), Mexico City (2016); the De Pont Museum, Netherlands (2015); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013), Art Institute of Chicago (2013), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2012), Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2012), Bass Museum, Miami, Florida, USA (2010), Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2009), Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea – Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal (2008), Kestnergesellschaft Hanover (2006), Pompidou Centre Paris (2005), and MoCA Miami (2005). He has exhibited at biennials including the 56th International Exhibition of Contemporary Art – La Biennale de Venezia (2015), Johannesburg Biennale (2012), Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2011), Shanghai Biennale (2010).  Julien was the recipient of The Royal Academy of Arts Charles Wollaston Award 2017. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the Arts in the Queen’s Birthday 2017 Honours List. In 2019, Isaac Julien was appointed to the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Julien and independent curator and writer Mark Nash, the former head of contemporary art at the Royal College of Art in London, will work together on developing the Isaac Julien Lab at the UC Santa Cruz campus, which will provide students with the opportunity to assist Julien and Nash with project research and the production of moving-image and photographic works in California and London.

About Lina Bo Bardi

Lina Bo Bardi was born Achillina Bo in Rome in 1914. After studying architecture in the city she moved to Milan, setting up her own studio in 1942, aged just 28. Her nascent career interrupted by war (her studio was destroyed by aerial bombing in 1943), she moved from Italy to São Paulo in 1946, quickly re-establishing her practice and co-founding with her husband, the writer, curator and collector Pietro Maria Bardi, the influential art magazine Habitat, and later becoming the editor of Domus. Bo Bardi’s work is characterised by the integration of the values of the Modernism with those of Brazilian popular culture and its pluralist identity. She applied construction techniques learned from local craftsmen to her designs, which include iconic buildings such as São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), Museu de Arte da Bahia (MAM-BA) and SESC Pompéia, widely considered to be her masterpiece. In addition, she was a noted editor, illustrator and curator, a designer of jewellery and creator of set designs and costumes for experimental film and theatre. She died in 1992. Posthumous exhibitions dedicated Bo Bardi’s work include the major touring exhibition Lina Bo Bardi: Together, organised by the British Council in 2012. In 2014, a Google Doodle commemorated what would have been Lina Bo Bardi’s hundredth birthday.

Video: A teaser of Isaac Julien’s new nine-screen installation, premiering at Victoria Miro, which traverses a collection of Lina Bo Bardi’s most iconic buildings, offering a meditation on the work and legacy of the visionary modernist architect and designer (1914–1992).

Cover image © Isaac Julien, Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvellous Entanglement, 2019 © Isaac JulienCourtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice

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