Adriana Varejão, Chambre d’échos

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1964, Adriana Varejão has made her mark as one of the most singular figures in contemporary Brazilian creation since the 1990s. Drawing on references to Brazil’s colonial history, libertine literature, or traditional music, her work invents a contemporary form of baroque through its theatricality, monumentality, excessiveness, and artifice.
Between the minimalist Saunas and the gutted azulejo façades baring their raw flesh, the catalog for the exhibition Chambre d’échos, presented at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in 2005, sets out to plumb the depths of this baroque, savvy, instinctive intelligence by offering different views of a sensual, poetic work that stands between painting, sculpture, and architecture.