In his new exhibition at Galeria Millan, Thiago Rocha Pitta presents a never-before-seen video, as well as previously exhibited pieces that relate to this new work. The art piece that gives name to the exhibition, Ocean / Atlas, was created during an artistic residency in Norway in 2014, through the Circulating Air program. The artist appropriates a mythological figure to name and create a work that explores issues that are present in his work as a whole, like an extended experience of temporality and the limits of the relationship that man can establish with nature.

The mythological universe and literature are constant references in the work of Thiago Rocha Pitta (as in videos O cúmplice secreto (The secret accomplice) and Youth, in which the artist borrows the same titles and themes from the work of Joseph Conrad); these references, however, are never univocal or limited by the direction of origin. Elements and human characters are transfigured essentially into mineral forms, sometimes plants, in these contexts created by Rocha Pitta. It is worth noting that even elements that are inherent in the technical and cultural (such as sailing or the control of fire) are displaced in these videos, appearing as ghosts, mysterious beings that cannot produce themselves, but that also do not seem to emerge from human force. The camera, static or drifting, puts the spectator in the awkward position of voyeur of this world that seems to exist without him or her.

The boat is also a recurring theme in the artist’s work. Three art pieces with this element can be seen on the first floor of the gallery: in Homenagem a JMW Turner (2002), a boat is burned on the ocean, a clash between fire and water; in Herança (2007), a drifting boat carries a handful of dirt and two trees, an image that is dreamlike, ironic and full of loneliness; in O cúmplice secreto (2008), finally, a gleaming form, whose precise contours are difficult to understand, approaches the camera/viewer on the ocean and, as it does, it brings the dark, producing a growing tension brought about by this presence that can not always be seen, only guessed.

In Ocean / Atlas, in turn, is not the sea that contains the boat, but the boat that carries the ocean. This fragile wooden structure takes the place of the titan Atlas, floating in the void, sustaining the Earth or at least its seas. Originating from the technical dominance of man over nature and associated with the blossoming and growth of numerous civilizations, the ability to sail appears here as the fulcrum of the world. The image echoes interviews in which the artist says, for men, nature itself does not exist: as Midas, everything that man touches turns into culture, even the ocean wilderness.

Thiago Rocha Pitta

(1980 Tirandentes, MG) A multimedia artist, Pitta has participated in exhibitions since 2001. In 2013, he presented two solo exhibitions in Milan (Italy), in the public space by Chiesa Santa Maria Incoronata and Gluck50 Gallery. In 2012, he was selected to take part in the 30th Bienal de São Paulo, and in 2011, he participated in the exhibition The Garden of Forking Paths Sculpture Project, at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich, Switzerland). That same year, he was one of three Brazilian artists to display his work at the special session Solo Projects Latino America at the ARCO 2011 (Madrid, Spain); he also held a solo exhibition at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, RJ). Among his solo exhibitions, those performed at Parque Lage (Rio de Janeiro), 2010; the Meyer Riegger (Karlsruhe, Germany), 2009; the Arts Initiative Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan), 2008; the Pavilhão Ascensão (São Paulo, SP), 2007; the Museu de Arte da Pampulha (Belo Horizonte, MG), 2002; the Espaço Cultural Sergio Porto and the Castelinho do Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro), 2001, stand out. He participated in group exhibitions such as Nova Arte Nova, at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro), in 2008; A Time Frame, at the the PS1-MoMA (New York, USA), 2006; J‘en rêve, at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain (Paris, France), 2005. He took part in the 5th Bienal do Mercosul (Porto Alegre, RS), 2005 and 2013. Pitta is the winner of the following awards: Marcantonio Vilaça (Brazil) in 2005 and Open Your Mind award (Switzerland) in 2009. He was one of the finalists of the EFG Bank & ArtNexus Acquisition Award Nomination 2011. In 2014, he participated in the artist residency program Circulating AiR, organized by Stiftelsen 3,14 (Norway).