Ternium, Proa Foundation, and MAM bring Dan Graham’s work to Rio de Janeiro

Ternium, PROA Foundation, and MAM brought to Rio de Janeiro the piece Whirligig (Wind), located at the external area of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) of Rio de Janeiro. This is the first time Dan Graham’s installation has been shown in Brazil. Created in 2019, Whirligig questions the notion of the public and the private while also proposing a reflection upon the limits between perception and illusion.

Specially created for the Minimalism, Postminimalism, and Conceptualism 60-70 exposition at the PROA Foundation in Buenos Aires, this work reacts to light and bodies that pass through it. With bidirectional and transparent mirrors, the enormous double circular structure (688.4 x 548.4 x 230 cm) indicates a receptacle that is both a display case and a labyrinth; a place where light variation directly interferes with the mirrors’ reflection, causing the perception of space-time to change as a result of the interaction with the piece.

According to MAM’s Rio art director, Pablo Lafuente, the distortion of the senses creates a structure that suggests a new look or perspective of our bodies and the place where we are located: “In correlation between them, the architecture designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy and the installation of Graham proposes that built spaces only have sense in relation to the people who occupy them and the landscape that accommodates them.”

“It is a great honor to bring to Brazil, in conjunction with PROA Foundation, an art piece that suggests new perspectives about ourselves,” says Marcelo Chara, president of Ternium. Ternium, the sponsor of the exposition, invests and believes in the transformative force of society through culture and education.

Initially, the public tour of the piece will be available until the end of January. To get more information about the work, its author, and entries availability, visit the website of MAM Rio.

See how the exhibition began: