30/11/2020
“Candomble’s music and movement are the starting point for the reunion of a Brazilian artist based in London with his roots and his mother culture. The many visits to the sacred ground in Bahia, caused Guilherme to exercise a foreigner’s gaze at the same time he dived into his memories and tried to understand this culture as his own. Duality itself is a hallmark of this work, which finds relations and counterpoints in all its aspects. Through the fluidity of the Rodopio, the spin of the trance, the artist finds traces of the audiovisual practice, his craft, in the materiality of the analog photography, his passion. Through the ritual, there is a connection between Brazil and Africa, Bahia and London. While submerging in his past and reflecting on his present condition, he sees several possible dimensions, whether real or dreamlike. Although it seems impossible to mold these diverse dimensions in one image, in an ideal support, the encounter with the fabric seems to favor the authorial and respectful language with which Guilherme addresses the sacred. The materialization of this subjective glance is made through the printing of two or more images, since we are talking about multiple exposures as well, on fabric. The two layers represent the conscious and the unconscious, the material and the spiritual, the earthly and the divine. Raw cotton, heavier and more natural, transmits with its texture the dimension of ancestry. The voile, lighter and transparent, the flight, the smoke, the spiritual, and the possibilities of hope, a feeling everyone brings to visit the home of the saints.”
“RODOPIO” by Guilherme Sussekind Bailey is one of our 30 shortlisted works. Visit our viewing rooms at viaartsprize.org/exhibition
