A rope 20 meters long, 30 centimetres in diameter and weighing 120 kg is suspended in the main hall of the Zipper Gallery. Both ends gradually become dismembered from the main web until their minute thicknesses cling to the walls of the exhibition space, supporting the installation. Remitting to the Cartesian axes, three lines drawn across the wall of the gallery insert the work within the planes of the mapped space and in the terrain of control. Thus, the artist Janaina Mello Landini projects her third solo show at Zipper, open from March 9. Curated by Taisa Palhares, the exhibition "Right here, right now" presents site-specific and canvas works from the Ciclotrama series.
Ciclotrama is a neologism by the artist to designate the research that she has been developing since 2010. From a spatial drawing, she experiments with the physical tension between threads and the distribution of weights in order to deal with subjects like interconnectivity and interdependence. The passage and fixation of time also interest Janaina, who seeks to impregnate the work with the long hours dedicated to the acts of weaving and dismembering, thus establishing a relation with artisanal practice. As the artist states: "Conceptually, a Ciclotrama is the sectioning of a continuous and binary cycle, a schematic structure with a hierarchical characteristic, composed of interdependent parts. As an act, it is the long action of dividing the whole and its parts, until its minimal unit becomes apparent and sustains the whole system as a whole."
Janaina's production flows between different scales – from the public space to objects. The upper storey of the gallery was reserved for the artist's works on canvas. For these, Janaina took as a starting point the imaginary lines (parallel and meridian) of planispheric, cylindrical and conical cartographic projections. Disregarding the territories that originally occupied the representations, the artist creates occupations in this imagined space with ropes that are attached to the canvases and unravel throughout the exhibition space. The artist says, "Ciclotrama is an unpredictable and intuitive act. As a metaphor, it represents flux and ends up determining a zone. The idea in this series of works is to create islands and regions through the relationship between the rope and the cartographic space."
Originally from Minas Gerais but based in São Paulo, Janaina Mello Landini (São Gotardo, MG, 1974) aggregates her knowledge of architecture, physics and mathematics and her perception on time to develop pieces that travel through different scales. The labyrinthine architecture has been the central axis of her research in the "Ciclotramas" series, made with ropes that break down into minimal threading, and "Labirintos Rizomáticos", works in satin that result in the construction of multifocal perspectives, nullifying the traditional construction. Main solo exhibits: "Ciclotrama 27 (medusa)", Galeria Macca, Cagliari, 2015; "Ciclotramas", Galerie Virginie Louvet, Paris, 2015; "Ciclotrama 20 (onda)", Zipper Galeria, São Paulo, 2015; "Paisagens", Galeria Desvio. Belo Horizonte, 2011; "Ciclotrama", Espaço, Belo Horizonte, 2010. Main collective exhibits: "Double Je", Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2016; "Vértice", Centro Cultural dos Correios, Brasília, 2015; "43 visões do Monte Fuji por Artistas Contemporâneos Brasileiros", The Fine Art Laboratory, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, 2015; "Art for Florence Design Week – 5.0 Edition", Florence, 2014; "Duplo Olhar", Paço das Artes, São Paulo, 2014.