Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira’s striking new installation “Baitogogo” has now opened at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The complex “network of organic materials” sees existing concrete and plaster pillars transform midway into contorted and intertwining organic material reminiscent of the Amazon rainforest. The piece is typical of Oliveira’s work, which often uses materials from the Brazilian urban landscape such as wood taken from fences surrounding and blocking access to construction sites. Through these materials, Oliveria aims to highlight the organic growth of São Paulo’s favelas as well as the “endemic and parasitic nature of these constructions.” Inspiration is also drawn from medical textbooks and studies of physical pathologies such as tumors.
