José Damasceno. Plot

The first public site-specific project in the UK by the Brazilian sculptor José Damasceno, Plot will unfold within the spaces of Holborn Library, a four-storey building that was opened in 1960 as the first multi-functional, large-scale post-war library in London.

Plot has evolved from a period of research into London, its architecture and social history, as well as absorbing influences ranging from Jonathan Swift to Max Ernst, and Hammer Horror to Monty Python and William Harvey, the man who discovered blood circulation.

Fed by this process, Plot has emerged as a series of sculptural works and interventions made from both traditional materials including marble, clay and wood, and the less conventional such as a 24 volume set of the 1960 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. These works co-habit various spaces within the Library, including the public lending library and the local history archive, and will draw visitors deeper into parts of the building that are not normally accessible.

A project that is experienced at first subtly and suggestively, existing on the peripheries of vision for those who regularly use the library, Plot becomes more beguiling and complex as it is further explored and examined. Its structure, and the function of the building to which it responds, suggests the kinds of journeys often associated with reading of classic literature: journeys to lands that exist in the imagination, places of fantasy, allegory and satire, of disorientating landscapes peopled by strange objects and characters, shifts in scales and perspective, where the familiar is transformed or seems alien.

Damasceno is interested in the way that coincidence and happenstance can also impact upon his work and Plot reflects the kind of journey that has been open to the unexpected. As a result, the works installed at Holborn Library not only respond to the architecture of the building, but also incorporate ideas and images found along the way, each of which becomes a trigger for an imaginative process, creating a dynamic almost cinematic experience of looking at space.

José Damasceno was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, where he continues to live and work. His versatile approach encompasses sculpture, drawing and collage. The interplay between his various methods influences his work, creating installations characterised by a sharp and idiosyncratic sense of humour.

Damasceno represented Brazil at the Venice Biennale in 2007, and was granted use of the public spaces at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía for his 2008 installation Coordenadas y Apariciones. Considered to be one of the foremost artists of his generation, he has shown work around the world including at the Centro Cultural São Paulo (2012), the Sydney Biennale (2007) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2004). He is represented by Thomas Dane Gallery in the UK and by Galeria Fortes Vilaça in Brazil.

Plot will be Damasceno’s first major public project in the UK.