Pola Fernandez : unique exhibition at the FAMA Museum in Brazil

Chilean artist based in Brazil, Pola Fernandez held an artistic residency at the Bishop of Rosario Museum Contemporary Art, in Rio de Janeiro, after being selected by the Marcos Amaro Art Factory Notice, which is the sixth and last name awarded.

The present exhibition is the result of this process, occupying, simultaneously, two spaces reframed by the arts: the old textile factory where FAMA operates today and the place filled by one of the largest asylums in the country, Colônia Juliano Moreira, now home to the Bispo do Rosário Museum - where the artist who gives name to the institution lived for 50 years.

Arthur Bispo do Rosário shredded uniforms of the asylum and, from them, made thread to embroider and cover his objects. The uniform fabric is also an industry product. Its action of undoing the fabric had a practical motivation: to use the thread to create. We read his gesture metaphorically and perceive this action as a symbolic deconstruction of both disciplinary institutions: asylum and factory. It is the disciplinary institutions that Bishop undoes.

Pola Fernandez searches the walls of the old asylum and the old factory for the textures and colors caused by the wear and tear of the passage of time, as well as the contact points of friction that bring the two institutions together. What is seen on the outside is the reverse of the memory of these places. The unexposed part of the same fabric of life. The one who touches the skin rubs the wounds and absorbs the odors and secretions of the body that one wants to indulge.
 
Its creation process involved artists as well as users and professionals of the mental health service. It began with the look in the background and let itself be looked back. Pola experimented with various supports, pigments, scales, textures and dimensions, making use of materials that contributed to their exquisite plastic quality. It turned the inside out in a utopian action, this one-off making art. It penetrated the layers that cover the walls and spaces of the two "factories," which at some point came close in the way of confinement - one for mental health and the other for labor. This has given us the urge to touch the textures of the crumbling worlds to redo.

Chilean artist based in Brazil, Pola Fernandez launches a unique exhibition printed on Canson Infinity Aquarelle Rag