History The concept of Instituto Inhotim was first visualized by entrepreneur Bernardo Paz in the mid 80's. In 1984, the site was visited by famous landscape artist Roberto Burle Marx, who made some suggestions and contributions regarding the gardens. Since then, the original landscaping project has grown and undergone modifications.
The private estate was slowly transformed into a major cultural space, with the first buildings being erected to receive contemporary art works. In parallel, the botanical assets also grew, receiving an important increment in 2005 through the rescue and introduction of botanical collections from various regions in Brazil, with special focus on native species.
The city of Brumadinho, with 30 thousand inhabitants, is located in the valley of the Paraopeba River and has a great number of natural, historical and cultural assets.
The municipality covers an area of 634.4 km2, almost 157 acres, and is located in the Espinhaço Massif, at the beginning of the so-called Western Tableland. The settlement dates back to the Emboaba War in 1708, when people rose against the stringent demands of the Portuguese Crown and went there prospecting for gold. In 1832, Regent Feijó officialized the Bonfim do Paraopeba as well as the Matheus Leme and Piedade do Paraopeba townships. The district was created in 1923 and was emancipated in 1938, being separated from Bonfim, which became part of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area.
The region counts among its attractions the Fazenda dos Martins, the seat of an old farm which is in the area of Marinhos. The buildings are the work of slaves, with dry-stacked stone walls, and inside the house the walls and ceilings are painted in the style of the 18th century.
There is also Piedade do Paraopeba, one of the oldest villages in the State of Minas Gerais, whose main church of Our Lady of the Rosary dates back to 1729. Another tourist attraction is the church of São José do Paraopeba, built in December of 1751 at the request of Father Antonio José de Moura.
Free slaves formed the "quilombola" of Sapé. This community upholds its old traditions of Congado and Guarda de Moçambique, folkloric/religious dances of African origin.
Inhotim currently possesses about 70 artworks on display, which include permanently installed works as well as those exhibited in four galleries that house long-term shows on a temporary basis: the galleries of the Fountain, Lake, Forest and Square.
Inhotim's museological proposal comprises different exhibition spaces. Many artworks are exhibited in the open air, in a garden, in the forest, at the top of a mountain, or in a reflecting pool. Other artworks are found in closed spaces, individually displayed in pavilions built especially to house them, or as part of group shows in large galleries. The coexistence of open and closed spaces encourages a singular experience in the appreciation of the artwork.
Another thing adding to the uniqueness of Inhotim's museological space is the absence of a preestablished linear exhibition path, with a mandatory order, or a predominant perspective. The trails crossing organically through the park offer myriad freely chosen routes between the open-air artworks and the galleries.
A large part of the artworks exhibited at Inhotim are permanent installations, and many of them were realized as site-specific works. In response to invitations, the artists develop projects especially for Inhotim, taking into account the natural and cultural characteristics of the locale. Often, these artworks are the result of various years of work, based on intensive dialogs between the artists, curators, architects, landscapers, producers and other professionals involved. The opportunity offered by Inhotim for artists to create projects requiring complex installation and maintenance is one of the aspects that sets it apart from other institutions in the international context. A number of artworks with these characteristics were inaugurated in 2009, including Sonic Pavilion (2009), by Doug Aitken, De lama lâmina [From Mud, a Blade, 2009], by Matthew Barney, and Piscina [Pool, 2009], by Jorge Macchi.
Like the site-specific artworks, the sculptures displayed in the gardens are essentially associated with the place where they are permanently installed. When installing a sculpture, artists and curators research the localization and offer the best conditions for the work’s specificities, establishing a dialog between the artwork and its surroundings.
Inhotim also possesses galleries and pavilions especially constructed to permanently house the artworks of a determined artist. The Cildo Meireles and Adriana Varejão galleries, respectively inaugurated in 2004 in 2008, exhibit a select sampling of the artworks of these two great names in Brazilian contemporary art. For its part, the Doris Salcedo Gallery, opened in 2008, was designed to house a single artwork, Neither (2004), by the Colombian artist following the model of the True Rouge Gallery, opened in 2004, dedicated to the eponymous artwork by Tunga. The artworks La intimidad de la luz en St Ives [The Intimacy of the Light in St Ives, 1997], by Victor Grippo, and Continente/Nuvem [Continent/Cloud, 2007], by Rivane Neuenschwander, were installed in buildings remaining from an old farm, especially restored to receive them, and inaugurated in 2008 in 2009, respectively.
Inhotim has four galleries of about 1000 square meters each to house long-term but temporary exhibitions of works from the institution's collection. These shows explore thematic cross-sections and offer new approaches and interpretations for the collection. In the Forest and Lake galleries, the shows are organized according to titles that indicate common interests and affinities, indicating possibilities for dialogs between the artworks and their readings.
Forest Gallery is showing artworks by Anri Sala, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Haegue Yang, Iran do Espírito Santo, Jonathan Monk, Jorge Macchi and Olafur Eliasson.
The artists featured in Pontos de vista [Points of View] belong to a generation born after 1960 and linked to different artistic and geographic contexts. What unites them in this exhibition is a renewed interest in the process by which the viewer perceives form, seeking new types of connections between the senses and the mind. In their works, the reflection on the engagement of the viewer in the artistic experience is a direct source of inspiration.
Fountain Gallery
The show Lugares [Places] includes works by Alessandro Pessoli, Allora & Calzadilla, Anri Sala, Jorge Macchi, Marepe, Rivane Neuenschwander and Cao Guimarães, and Steve McQueen, all born after 1960.
By way of sculptures, videos, drawings and paintings, the exhibition brings the viewer down a path that begins at an almost domestic dimension, leads through micro- and macro-cosmology, to finally return to intimate images. Lugares refers to specific geographic localizations as well as universal narratives.
Lake Gallery
Galeria Lago is divided into four large installations of de Artur Barrio, Chris Buden, Hélio Oiticica & Neville D'Almeida and Navin Rawanchaikul & Rirkrit Tiravanija. The first space if dedicated to US artist Chris Burden, whose work Samson (1985) is prominently displayed at the entrance. This is a device connecting a turnstile to a mechanism which presses the walls of the gallery, portrait of a period in which the artist challenged the museum as a dedicated art space, practically destroying it.
Artists Rirkrit Tiravanija and Navin Rawanchaikul occupy another hall, where they exhibit Cities on the Move (1997), shown in its totality for the first time. This represents an esthetic, social and documental investigation of the tuk-tuk, the most popular means of transportation in Thailand.
Artur Barrio, a Portuguese citizen living in Brazil, is a referential artist for Brazilian art. At the Galeria Lago, he presents a major installation, , O Ignoto (1996), originally shown at the XXIII Biennale of São Paulo, formed of sea salt which covers the floor, a bicycle, lamp bulbs and other elements which form the path proposed by the work.
Still at Galeria Lago, Inhotim once more shows Cosmococa 5 - Hendrix War (1973) , a revolutionary work by Hélio Oiticica and Neville d'Almeida. This work is part of a series of five Cosmococas produced by the team in the seventies.
Square Gallery
Galeria Praça will show new montages of works by Alexandre da Cunha, Ernesto Neto and Janine Antoni.
Nave deusa (1998), by Ernesto Neto, will be installed once more in the gallery. This work is part of a series of artworks which the artist calls "ships", sculptures made of cloth planes which can be entered by the visitor. Nave Deusa is one of the first sculptures of this important group of works by this artist.
By Janine Antoni there will be Swoon (1997), an installation with three spaces, with projection, series of mirrors, theatrical elements and audios which lead the viewer to gradually discover the work and understand the artist's conception. Antoni already had one of her works displayed in Inhotim previously, called To draw a line (2003).
Forty part motet (2001), by Janet Cardiff, will remain on display for the next two years. Galeria Praça also has a permanent installation of the works Rodoviária de Brumadinho (2006) and Abre a porta (2005), by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, conceived by the artists´ in Inhotim.
Landscaping - Paisagismo
Entrepreneur - Empreendedor
Undergone modification Passou por uma reforma
Asset - Propriedade, Patrimonio
Tableland - planalto plateau
Prospect - garimpar
Stacked - empilhado
