AZUL E UNICÓRNIO: TÚLIO PINTO

In 'Blue and Unicorn', his solo show at Galeria Baró Jardins, Túlio presents a combination of new and recent works created for this exhibition. Like a magical alchemist, he transforms materials into new forms and situates five works in the main space of the gallery. The interaction and consequent phenomenological experience of the viewer with the objects becomes crucial to their meaning. Different materials are the connecting thread of the five sculptural works: glass bubbles, oxidized steel, a blue rope, and the lines of its borders. All prefabricated.

Notably different from these works is the video 'Unicorn' presented in the exhibition room which was made during a 7-week period of Tulio's artist residency in the great desert metropolis, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, during November and December 2015. He came up with the idea for the video before coming to Phoenix and brought balloons and orange clothing with him. Tulio purchased the unicorn mask in the city before the shoot and had the collaboration of local artists during the shoot. The rugged desert environment of the 'Superstition Mountains' east of Phoenix, with the unicorn anchored to the orange balloons offers an almost absurd, surreal visual juxtaposition. But it actually provokes the same feelings activated by Tulio's works - tension and harmony, childlike surprise, discomfort and the elements and vulnerability of materials not normally found together in the natural world. The carnivalesque aspects of the unicorn riding orange balloons in the desert and the economical use of industrial materials, including the blue rope, set a backdrop for the visualisation of Túlio Pinto's work - the space between. The 'space in between' offers a non-threatening refuge for the appreciation of the work and consequent personal experiences.

Ted G. Decker