Tunga (artist)

Tunga is the pseudonym of Antonio José de Barros Carvalho e Mello Mourão (born February 8, 1952 in Palmares , † June 6, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro ). Tunga was a Brazilian sculptor , performance and installation artist .

life and work

Tunga was the son of Gerardo Melo Mourão, a Brazilian journalist, poet and writer. His mother was an activist . During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the family went into exile in Chile for a few years .

Tunga studied at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the private Universidade Santa Úrsula in Rio de Janeiro. After completing his architecture studies, he worked as a performance and installation artist. His multidisciplinary work included not only installation and performance, but also sculpture, drawing, video and poetry.

With Cildo Meireles , Waltércio Caldas and José Resende , Tunga published the magazines “Malasartes” and “A parte do Fogo”.

Tunga explained about his work that his works move between fiction and reality, transforming the fictional into the real and the real into the fictional.

“One of his most spectacular works,“ True Rouge ”, is a fascinating sculpture from 1997, which is exhibited in Inhotim in Brazil and consists of similar and different objects (sponges, billiard balls, glass balls, brushes, glass bottles) in nets and everything is immersed in blood-red liquid… In 2005, in his monumental installation “In the light of two worlds”, which was exhibited under the Louvre pyramid, he showed the mutual relationships between the cultures of the New and Old World. The floating sculpture consisted of black intertwined soft, braided forms, in which gilded skulls and the heads of the statues of famous men from the Louvre collection were trapped ... "

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Exhibitions (selection)

• 1982: 40th Biennale di Venezia , Venice
• 1994: 22nd São Paulo Biennale
• 1997: documenta X , Kassel
• 2000: Gwangju Biennale , Gwangju
• 2001: Brazil-Body & Soul Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , New York
• 2005: KunstFilmBiennale , Cologne
• 2006: Anos 80: Uma Topologia Museu de Arte Contemporânea , Serralves
• 2007: Tunga MoMA PS1 , New York City
• 2009: 3rd Moscow Biennale , Moscow

Awards (selection)

• 1990: Prêmio Brasília de Artes Plásticas, Museu de Arte de Brasília, Brasília
• 1992: Prêmio Mário Pedrosa da Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Arte, Rio de Janeiro
• 1998: Johnny Walker Prize, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes , Rio de Janeiro
• 2000: nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize , Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation , New York

literature

• Tunga: Laminated Souls by Tunga, Beverly Adams, Holzwarth Publications (March 1, 2008), ISBN 978-3-935567-41-1

Web links

• Tunga website
• Art in America, Davis Ebony, April 28, 2014 Alchemical Procedures: An Interview with Tunga

Individual evidence

1. ^ Morre no Rio o artista plástico Tunga G1. Retrieved June 7, 2016
2. ↑ documenta X short guide. Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-89322-938-8 , page 226
3. ↑ Schirn, Sabine Weier, November 12, 2013 In the exhibition “Brasiliana” the artist takes Tunga into archaic worlds. His enigmatic works call for decryption. accessed on May 8, 2016
4. ↑ "Moi, Vous et la Lune", installation by Tunga, courtyard of the stables ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on May 8, 2016 
5. ↑ MoMA PS1 Tunga accessed on May 8, 2016
6. ↑ Exhibition biography Tunga ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 8, 2016.