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| Book cover Alchemie Der Farben - Taisa Nasser |
A surprise that Venice Biennale director, Massimiliano Gioni, presented to visitors at the exhibition opening in the central pavilion only a few days ago comprised a large red book ‟The Encyclopaedic Palace” as the key object in the centre of the space. It stands for the stores of images and visual cosmoses that nourish all our visions: mental images and recorded dreams by psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961).
In an equally surprising way, at a meeting with curators from the ‟Curatorial Partners” – art critics, museum directors and exhibition makers from different countries – Taisa Nasser also produced the large-format, red book by Jung, in the Italian edition, from among her documents. She wished to use it to support her fundamental arguments concerning the history of painting and the essence of colour in the field of conflict between the ‟ego” and the core personality of the ‟self”. She was intent on clarifying Jung’s fascination with the alchemists of the Middle Ages, as described in the red book, and the extent to which she shared it with him.
This declaration by Taisa Nasser, the basic manifesto of her artistic motivation, became so dominant in the Paris discussion between the artist and the curators Jochen Boberg, Alexandra Grimmer, Ulrike Damm and Elmar Zorn that space is granted to its full details in this artist’s book. The discussion was continued in an earlier meeting in Paris in which – in addition to the abovementioned curators – the museum specialist Dieter Ronte , art critic Heinz Peter Schwerfel ( Paris / Buenos Aires / Cologne ) and exhibition director of the Städtisches Kulturzentrum Pasinger Fabrik Thomas Linsmayer ( Munich ) participated.
In the following documentation of our conversation with the artist, which centres on the subjects of colour, matter and/or material, movement, film, music and dance, the emphasis on Taisa Nasser’s double artistic orientation is also quite striking: as an architect and as a painter. Having gained a diploma in architecture and urban studies at the University of Sao Paulo in 1976, she also sees her space-consuming application of extremely thick paint as a continuation of her architectural vocation using the means of fine art.
The artist’s life so far has had two distinct centres in Sao Paulo and Paris, a focus expressed not only in her exhibition activities in those cities but also in the several prominent awards that the Brazilian artist has received in Paris: now they will be joined by the German-speaking countries, starting with an impassioned presentation of ten large-format works in the central hall of the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin. It makes clear that this artist is busy realizing what she described so touchingly in her conversation with the curatorial partners:
‟I would like to embrace my viewers with my works“.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Ronte
