A sculptural installation entitled ‘Baitogogo’ by the Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira is currently on show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Exhibiting a powerful identity, it dominates the space as an intricate mass of gnarled roots and branches emerging from the geometric infrastructure of the gallery, forcing it to return to nature as a primitive organic form.
The installation is created from recycled tapume wood from the streets of San Paolo, the cheapest form of timber, it is customarily used for temporary structures such as fencing around building sites. The reclaimed fragments of wood were painstakingly manipulated by the artist’s team over a three month period in order for the huge installation to reach its ultimate shape as a complex artwork which fuses art with biology. Through this piece of tumorous growths, the artist comments on the continuing urban decay within his country.
The artist is influenced by the secrets of the human body, the patterns of tissues to which the complexity of his work may be directly related. Through pathology and the interconnectivity of the neurological network, we can recognise the mesmerising shapes of his sculptural pieces. Baitogogo will remain on show at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris through September 9th, 2013.
