Ground: Tulio Pinto
Thus, the works are conceived as systems—networks of interconnected phenomena whose scale and intensity draw us in, making us alert to their presence. T
The selection of works that Túlio Pinto presents in Ground brings together key ideas that the artist has developed over the years. These ideas are expressed through the relationships of contact and proximity between different materials and principles—differences that, when contrasted, amplify their most fundamental qualities. These qualities manifest in the way they evoke the body and its limitations: flexibility, fall, tension, rigidity, and balance.
Túlio states that his focus is on the ground, on the solid impact of its presence—a force capable of redefining the actions within his works. However, we perceive this only indirectly, mediated by opposing strategies and materials that expand and contract.
Thus, the works are conceived as systems—networks of interconnected phenomena whose scale and intensity draw us in, making us alert to their presence. These phenomena belong to the physical world, to the raw force that operates continuously and without reason: a stretched line linking a weight to a plane of glass creates an improbable balance between solidity and transparency; iron reveals the very foundation of the glass that intercepts it—its fragility. The encounter of these contrasting elements becomes an opportunity to step back and observe how the constant action of force challenges our understanding of the world.
Gravity pulls all bodies toward the center of the Earth. We can only imagine the precise point where all tension would concentrate—the shifting weight of our bodies and the desire we experience, as unreachable as the Other. All our actions would converge toward this infinite zero if not for the effort of projection, extension, and flight—the forces that transform the mind into something distinct from matter.
We are familiar with the forces at play in Ground, but we recognize them within a different context. The systems proposed by Túlio emerge from the same conflicts of forces that surround us. They reference the very forces that, while confining us to the absolute space of a single point, also generate the poetic possibility of escape and creation.
We experience thrusts, compressions, fractures, and vertigo at a pace that compels us to comply without reflection. Walter Benjamin warned us nearly a century ago: disruption and shock are absorbed by the necessity to keep moving forward, leaving us only with phantasmagorias.
As we approach the works in Ground, we are drawn to decipher the logic governing each composition—to reconstruct the continuity that allows materials to defy their fate. In the oscillation between proximity and escape, art questions us, presenting an inquiry whose answer, in our minds, equates to the sensory and conceptual opening of an impasse. But the time of questioning is a time of waiting, of stationary tension that renders the familiar strange—hence, the anticipation of a resolution, like the disarming of a trap.
The experience of art unfolds within this interval, as we emerge from the sensory encounter in search of a meaning that has been lost. The alternative is mere acceptance.
Flávio Gonçalves, April 2013
